MLP: Seeds of the Past
by CJ Ambrose
Summary: Sooner or later, we've all got to let go of our past, but for some, it's one of the hardest things ever to do. Takes place after "A Journey's End"; third sequel to "A Race Against Time"; featuring Stardust Balance from "A Journey Beyond Sanity". Contains several dark scenes not suitable for kids
1. Prologue

**MLP: Seeds of the Past**

 _ **Chapter 1 - Prologue**_

 _ **Author's Note:**_ _"My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" belongs to DHX Media and Hasbro._

* * *

"Mom… Dad… I'm coming!" cried Casey, who was running as fast as he possibly could back to his house. "Please be-"

" _Aaaaaggghhh!"_

Suddenly, he stopped moving after hearing a familiar pony's scream, and turned his attention to the deadly battle that was occuring several miles away from him.

 _Princess Twilight!_

He watched with fear as the giant and powerful centaur charge straight through a mountain, but then, it turned into complete shock when he saw the young alicorn quickly teleport above Tirek so that she could deliver what appeared to be a very powerful energy blast.

 _Oh my gosh… she's amazing_ , thought Casey, who had developed a crush on the princess ever since he'd first laid eyes on her.

Unfortunately, his fear returned after watching Tirek toss the piece of the ground, and it was because that piece was heading in the same direction as-

" _Mom! Dad!"_

So, Casey continued to run, and he went faster after seeing the piece split into two seperate pieces once it hit the ground. _"No… please, no!"_

While one half went off in another direction, Casey and the other half went down the other one, but the piece was a lot faster than him.

" _Please, don't go… this can't be happening…"_

To make matters worse, by the time he had finally reached his home, it was already too late.

" _No… Mom… Dad… I'm so sorry…"_

Little did he know that he wasn't the only pony who though he had lost everything.

* * *

 _[A few years later]_

" _I was wondering when you'd show up,"_ said Twilight, who was standing on one of her castle's balconies.

As he lowered himself down, Casey rolled his eyes, and he said, "That wasn't exactly fair. You know that I can't teleport."

The young alicorn shrugged her shoulders while Casey just shook his head in disbelief.

"Well, if I remember, you weren't exactly _fair_ in your previous race victory either."

Remembering what she was talking about, Casey had a sheepish expression on his face, and said, "Point taken… congrats on the win."

"Oh, Casey..." laughed Twilight, and the two of them continued their playful conversation, unaware of the fact that they were being watched.

" _You just think that life is full of sunshine and rainbows, don't you, Princess?"_

Several miles away, standing stop a grassy hill, the cloaked pony who'd just burned the remains of Casey's house to the ground watched as Twilight leaned into her special sompony on her castle balcony.

And this was possible because he was wearing something that looked like the night vision goggles you can put on your head, but they were designed more like binoculars.

" _You're about to get a well-deserved reality check, Princess."_ He said emotionlessly. _"You will pay for what you did to me... and I promise, justice WILL be served."_

Then, after seeing the two of them go into the castle, he turned his attention over to a cloud-based home that was also in Ponyville.

" _And I'll start with her..."_


	2. A Friendly Invite

**MLP: Seeds of the Past**

 _ **Chapter 2 - A Friendly Invite**_

 _ **Author's Note:**_ _"My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic"_ _ **belongs to DHX Media and Hasbro, and "What We Got" by Tony Ferrarri is owned by Disney.**_

* * *

 _My Little Pony, My Little Pony_

 _Ahh, ahh, ahh, ahhh..._

 _(My Little Pony)_  
 _I used to wonder what friendship could be_  
 _(My Little Pony)_  
 _Until you all shared its magic with me_

 _Big adventure_

 _Tons of fun_

 _A beautiful heart_

 _Faithful and strong_

 _Sharing kindness!_

 _It's an easy feat_

 _And magic makes it all complete_

 _You have my little ponies_

 _Do you know you're all my very best friends?_

* * *

 _[Twilight's Castle]_

"..."

" _Casey.."_

"..."

" _Casey!"_

After hearing a familiar pony yell out his name, Casey yawned, and muttered, "I already told you, Starlight, I don't need you as my alarm clock."

"Well, ever since that one adventure," replied the light-purple unicorn. "You've been sleeping in more often than usual… and besides, what sort of friend would I be if I didn't wake you up every morning?"

As he got out of his bed, Casey rubbed his eyes for a little bit, and said, "First, leave the generosity stuff to Rarity… and two, you're more like an annoying sister than a close friend."

"Oh, _ha ha ha_ ," said Starlight, in a sarcastic tone, and was about to continue her sentence when she noticed that Casey was going to the library. "Why are you going that way?"

"To go and visit… uh…" Casey started to say, but then, he stopped after seeing an almost sad look on his friend's face. "I haven't really… been around much, have I?"

Starlight shook her head, and said, "Not since you and him started hanging out more with each other… but that's okay, I mean… if you prefer to-"

"No, no, it's fine," replied Casey. "I can always visit him another time."

As he watched her begin to smile, the young pony asked, "So, what did you want to do today?"

* * *

Inside the library, Spike was pacing back and forth, quietly humming to himself while he waited for-

 _WHOOSH!_

"So, how did it go?" asked the young dragon.

Taking a quick look back at the Crystal Mirror, Twilight replied, "Just fine, Spike… she'll make sure to let the others know about Casey's party."

Spike nodded his head, and said, "Awesome… but, uh, won't it be kind of weird for two versions of us to be in the same room for almost the whole day?"

"Not as weird as when Pinkie had that one party here," reminded a chuckling Twilight, who looked through the remaining invitations that were in her saddlebag. "And speaking of Pinkie, we have to go deliver her invitation."

As the two of them began to walk out of the castle, a confused Spike asked, "But, uh, isn't she the one in charge of decorating this place when it's the day of his party?"

"Yes, but it's the thought that counts, Spike," replied the young princess. "And it's a good thing that Starlight will keep him busy in the meantime."

"What do you think they'll do together?"

* * *

 _It just keeps on gettin' better  
Hey, hey  
Feel the music every move you make  
These are the moments you'll remember  
And we won't let it change, not a single thing_

After following Starlight out of the castle, and onto the nearest clear field of grass, Casey looked at the object he was currently holding, and said, "Uh, no offense, Star, but… I don't know how to fly a kite."

"No worries, I'll teach you," replied a smiling Starlight. "I mean, if Pinkie's sister could figure out how, then it should be simple for you to learn."

 _We can make the whole world, turn just for us  
What we got  
Is sunshine for days_

Taking another look at the kite in his hooves, an unsure Casey replied, "Uh, _yeah_ , sure… so, how do we get it in the air?"

 _So get up, let the music take you away  
What we got  
Got me feeling this way  
You're the sunny day, hear the whole world say_

* * *

 _[Sugarcube Corner]_

"Thanks for the invitation, Twilight! Now I'll make sure that I do a _perfect_ job with Casey's party decorations!"

Twilight chuckled, and she shook her head, saying, "Just do whatever you're comfortable with, Pinkie, it's only a birthday party."

"Well, _yeah_ , but it's gonna be the first one with all of _us_ ," reminded Pinkie. "So, I have to make sure this is memorable for-"

 _DING!_

Suddenly, after the noise of the oven went off, Pinkie cried, " _Ooh, yeah, his cake is done!"_

Twilight and Spike watched as their friend began to add various cake decorations to what would be Casey's birthday cake, and she said, "It smells delicious, Pinkie… hopefully he loves chocolate!"

* * *

With her kite now up in the air, Starlight said, "Okay, Casey, since today's a good-enough-windy day, you just have to lift your kite up until it catches the wind.

 _Every time we come together  
It don't matter when or where we are  
We dance from here until forever  
Because you're by my side, I'll be by your side_

"Then, let go of the bridle and begin to let some line out. After that, pull on the line to point the kite up because this will help the kite climb higher into the air… understand?"

Casey nodded his head, and said, "Absolutely, Star… but, um, just one more thing… can you help untangle me out of this mess?"

 _We can make the whole world, turn just for us  
What we got  
Is sunshine for days_

Somehow, the young pony had wrapped his kite's string all around his body, and it almost looked like he'd been tied up by Applejack with her lasso.

"This is gonna take a while…" said Starlight, letting out a sigh of amusement.

 _So get up, let the music take you away  
What we got  
Got me feeling this way  
You're the sunny day, hear the whole world say_

After finishing up with Pinkie, Twilight and Spike went over to Rarity's home to deliver her invitation, and then, it was off to Rainbow's house.

Unfortunately, when it seemed like she wasn't there, Twilight decided to simply leave it on her doorstep, positive that her friend would notice it whenever she came back home, and made her way over to Sweet Apple Acres.

* * *

 _Meanwhile_

" _Good thing the door is always open… and she's supposed to be our future ruler one day."_

With the castle currently unoccupied, the cloaked pony casually made his way inside, and started walking upstairs to the library.

" _Figures that she'd care more about this damn castle than the damage that she caused."_

Once he was inside the book-filled room, the cloaked pony stood still to observe the Crystal Mirror world-traveling machine.

" _The last thing I need is an alien or some other freakish pony ruining my plans by coming here… so how about we put a stop to that?"_

* * *

 _[Fluttershy's Cottage]_

After reading the birthday invitation, Fluttershy gave her friend a grateful smile, and said, "Thank you, Twilight… I hope Casey will enjoy it."

"Oh, he'd better," said Twilight, with a chuckle. "Especially since he's supposed to be limiting his time with-"

 _POOF!_

Before she could finish her sentence, a familar draconequs appeared in the middle of the living room, and said, "I'm sorry, but I could have sworn that I heard something about a _party_ …"

Twilight let out a sigh, and replied, " _Yes,_ Discord, it's a party for Casey, and we're having it at the castle in a few days."

" _Splendid!"_ cried Discord, who was making a bunch of confetti appear above the two ponies heads. "I'll be sure to drop by whenever-"

"Uh, hate to burst your bubble, Discord," said Spike, who was looking through Twilight's saddle bag. "But we don't have any more invitations to give out, so I'm not sure if-"

He was suddenly interrupted by Discord's laughter, and the draconequs said, "Oh, I don't need an invitation, little one… besides, what would a party be without _me_ there?"

Before anyone could answer, Discord snapped his fingers, and in the blink of an eye, he was gone.

"Well, I don't think it'll be _that_ bad having him show up to Casey's party," said Fluttershy, trying to be optimistic. "I mean, if it's like that one time when I went to his home for-"

" _Ahem!"_

The trio of friends turned to the side, where a white-colored and impatient bunny was glaring at Fluttershy, who said, "Oh, dear, I almost forgot… alright, let's get you your carrot, Angel."

* * *

Now that he'd done his work on the Crystal Mirror, the cloaked pony quickly headed out of the castle, with a smile across his face.

" _Now it's time to pay a visit to the so-called rulers of Equestria…"_


	3. Stranger Things, Part 1

**MLP: Seeds of the Past**

 _Chapter 3 - Stranger Things, Part 1_

 _ **Author's Note:**_ _"My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic"_ _ **belongs to DHX Media and Hasbro, and major thanks to Fanfic920 for helping me out with this chapter!**_

* * *

Now, it's no secret that Rainbow Dash loved flying, but what some ponies didn't know is that she loved flying at night the most. The cool wind flying through her mane and tail, the view of stars rushing past… nothing could beat it.

At first, the athletic Pegasus thought she'd just enjoy a quick nighttime lap around Ponyville, but all that changed when she noticed two of her friends making their way over to Twilight's castle.

"Oh, come on, Casey, it wasn't _that_ bad for your first time flying a kite," said Starlight, and the light-orange pony rolled his eyes as they made their way inside.

Casey just looked at her, and she added, "Well, maybe it wasn't _as_ good as it could have been, but you still had fun, right?"

"Yeah, I did… thanks, Star," replied Casey, giving her a warm smile, in return.

A smile appeared on Rainbow's face, as well, and as she continued on her path to wherever she'd have her nighttime lap, the young pegasus-

"HELP!"

Suddenly, a scream of fright interrupted her thoughts, and she said, "That sounded like it came from the Everfree Forest… what kind of bonehead would be there at this time in the night?"

Still, Rainbow knew that somepony needed her help, so with blazing speed, she flew towards the sound of the shout.

 _"Hold on! I'm here… where are you? It's really hard to see!"_

 _"I'm right here! Help!"_ the voice yelled.

If the sun was still in the sky, this would have been easier, but since it obviously was not, all that Rainbow could do was try her best.

"I still can't see you… _ugh_ , why couldn't Princess Luna have risen a full moon tonight?'

 _"Don't worry,"_ the voice said, suddenly sounding more menacing than distressed. "I'm right _HERE_."

Then, before she could give a response, Rainbow heard some type of noise that reminded her of somepony blowing through a tubw, and a few seconds later, the pegasus felt a small prick on her flank.

" _OWWW_!" the Pegasus yelled in pain. "What the _hay was that_?!"

The newly-changed voice let out an evil chuckle, and replied, "Oh, just a little concoction I whipped up… which should be kicking in right… about… _now_ …"

Then, Rainbow saw a cloaked pony making his way towards her, and she realized that it was him who launched the small projectile at her flank.

"What are… you... _talking… about_?"

For some reason, her voice begun to slur ,and her wings were moving slower and slower as blackness began to permeate her vision.

" _Shhh…. just relax, Rainbow…"_

Too exhausted to respond, the Element of Loyalty eventually couldn't hold herself in the air any longer, so she landed on the ground with a CRASH, kicking up a bit of dirt in the process, due to the momentum from a fall at such a height.

However, Rainbow managed to remain conscious long enough to see the cloaked pony approach her, and many questions were racing inside of her mind, the first of which being _'WHAT'S HAPPENING TO ME?'_

Before the darkness overtook her, she heard the voice say one last thing, hinting that he had a much bigger plan than just her.

 _"One down… plenty more to go…"_

* * *

 _ **A few hours later**_

As he made his way into the library, Casey was starting to feel a little sad about the fact that he really hadn't spent much time with Starlight, aside from today, because of all the fun he had been having with-

" _Beedo, beedo, beedo, beedo! Oh, excuse me, Casey!"_

Suddenly, his thoughts were interrupted by Pinkie Pie, who'd raced past him with…

" _Is that a fire extinguis- Pinkie, hold on!"_

Casey quickly went after her, and to his shock, he found her in the library, along with a concerned Twilight and Starlight.

 _Whoosh!_

"Well, there we go, all better," said Pinkie, after letting out a sigh of relief. "Hope nopony was planning on using the Crystal Mirror anytime soon!"

Not knowing what to say, Casey looked at his special somepony, who explained that the world-traveling machine had been sending out random bolts of electricity, and whenever the alicorn had tried to fix it, things only became worse.

"… so I think it's best if, like Pinkie said, we put a hold on visits to Sunset Shimmer and... well…"

Taking a quick glance over at a particular book nearby, Casey sighed, and said, "I understand, Twilight, and I agree, as well."

Starlight gave him a look of surprise, and replied, "Really? I figured you'd try to, like, find another way to see him."

"Eh, I'm sure he's dealing with other stuff right now," said Casey, who also smiled at her. "Besides, that gives me more time to practice my kite flying…"

" _Practice_?" said Twilight, starting to chuckle. "Oh, Casey, were you _that_ bad at it?"

Before he could reply to her, Starlight replied, "He got tangled up almost five times in the kite's string."

" _Four!_ That last one didn't count, Star, and you know I'm right!"

While the two of them started an argument with each other, Twilight looked back at the Crystal Mirror, wondering who or what could have possibly caused it to malfunction.

 _Well, it's not like anything else could possibly go wrong._

* * *

 _"Hi, Honey. I hope you're doing okay. I just wanted to let you know I put Carl down, so make sure to be quiet when you get home…_

" _Oh, you should've seen his little face... I love you. See you later."_

After listening to his wife's voice on his communicator device, the cloaked pony turned it off, and continued to look over a blueprint that showed what appeared to be the structure of a castle that-

 _"Hey!"_

He turned around to look at his prisoner, who was currently inside of a cage, saying, "You know, sooner or later, my friends are going to realize that I'm missing, and they'll come searching for me… then, once they find me, we're taking you _down_!"

" _Hahahaha…_ my, my, my... you are just _full_ of so much confidence, aren't you, Rainbow Dash?" replied the cloaked pony, and the young Pegasus continued to frown at him. "It's too bad that your friends won't even recognize you by the time they get here."

A slightly confused Rainbow raised her eyebrow, and asked, "What do you mean they're not going to recognize me?"

Instead of giving her an answer right away, the cloaked pony walked over to the nearest desk, and removed the long piece of fabric that had been covering one of his collected possessions.

"It's amazing what sort of things the enemies of your enemy will leave behind... and I think it's time now for me to try one of them out..."

When Rainbow saw what kind of weapon he was holding, she became nervous, and asked, "So, what, you're just going to-"

"- kill you? Oh, no, of course not.. not yet, anyway," assured the sinister pony. "But this MAY hurt just a bit, so just stay there… and I hope you like _pink_."

 _ **BZZZZZZZZTTTTT!**_

Then, after blowing away the steam coming out of the weapon, the cloaked pony chuckled, and said, "That's a good look for you… now, if you'll excuse me, there's some more ponies I need to take care of."

With a sly smile, he looked over at a nearby wall-chart, which showed pictures of everypony that he planned on capturing, and one of them showed the beloved Princess of Friendship.

 _You'll get what's coming to you, Twilight… I promise you that!_


	4. Stranger Things, Part 2

**MLP: Seeds of the Past**

 _Chapter 4 - Stranger Things, Part 2_

 _Author's Note:_ _ **"My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic"**_ _belongs to DHX Media and Hasbro_

* * *

 _That same night..._

The cloaked pony stared through the window of the Canterlot eating establishment, spying on a certain group of five who were eating within it.

 _"Hey Beckie! Where are you?! Listen, you won't believe what just happened. I just got two tickets to the Hoofball Championship! Call me back as soon as you can so we can plan out the best day ever! Alright, I gotta go! Bye!"_

As the audio recording on his communicator device finished, the five unicorns - Moondancer, Minuette, Lemon Hearts, Lyra Heartstrings and Twinkleshine, if he remembered correctly - emerged from their seats to begin their way back home.

 _'Well, here goes nothing,'_ the cloaked pony thought as he strolled after them.

He followed the mares from a safe distance for a while before they approached what looked to be one of their homes. _All in one place… perfect!_

"Thanks so much for tonight, ladies," Lyra said. "I always love it when I get the chance to visit you all."

"No problem, Lyra," Lemon Hearts replied. "Glad to hear thought that things are going well with Bon Bon."

"Yeah, you go filly," Twinkleshine added. Lyra's reply was only a blush. Moondancer only giggled at the exchange.

 _'It's nice to finally have friends,_ ' she thought.

As soon as she thought that however, she heard five blows and something prick her flank.

" _Owww… what in the…_ " she muttered. The rest of the group echoed her phrasing in rapid succession.

"What was that?" Minuette said, rubbing her flank with her hoof, only to find a small thin object imbedded in it. Before she could voice her find to her friends however, darkness began to overtake them.

"Why… everything… dark?" Moondancer slurred before she and her companions fell onto the stone ground, with the four of them unconscious. "I… have to…"

However, she stopped after noticing the cloaked pony that was making his way over to them.

"Better hope your little marefriend notices you're gone, Lyra," the cloaked pony muttered. "Otherwise, this'll take a lot longer than I'd want."

When he and Moondancer shared a look with each other, she asked, "W-who… are…"

"You'll learn eventually, little pony," he replied, and as the young mare closed her eyes, the cloaked pony added, "Just as your beloved friendship princess will learn what it's like to take something special away from somepony."

* * *

 _Ponyville - Twilight's Castle_

 _It's a festival of friendship_

 _And together, we are-_

"Oh, hiya, Casey!"

A look of confusion appeared on the young pony's face as he made his way into the kitchen, and he asked, "Hey, Pinkie… um, why were you singi-"

" _Sooooooooo_ _ **,**_ somepony has a _birthday_ coming up," replied Pinkie, giving him a sly smile, and Casey let out a chuckle.

"Yeah, and I'm guessing that a certain _pony_ is probably gonna throw me a party, right?"

The young and pink-colored quickly became shocked as she gasped, and cried, " _Who told you? Was it Twilight? She and I made a pin-"_

An amused Casey shook his head, and replied, "No, she didn't tell me anything… I just figured that it wouldn't be an awesome birthday without somepony like you throwing some type of par-"

 _Knock-knock-knock!_

Suddenly, there was a knock at the castle doors, and Pinkie said, "Huh… that usually never happens. Ponies usually just make their way inside."

So, the two of them began heading over to the main floor of Twilight's castle, and once they got there, they found their alicorn friend having a conversation with Scootaloo.

"... sure she just had something important to deal with," said Twilight. "I mean, not that you _aren't_ important to her, it's just that unexpected things happen sometimes, and we can't do anything about it."

The young pony let out a sigh, and she replied, "Yeah, I get what you're saying… thank you, Twilight."

As Twilight nodded her head, Pinkie happily bounced her way over to Scootaloo, and said, "I can walk you home, if that's okay."

"Sure, Pinkie… good night, Twilight," replied the little Pegasus, and while she followed Pinkie out of the castle, Casey gave his special somepony a confused look.

"She and Rainbow Dash were supposed to have a quick race or something with each other, but Rainbow never showed up."

Casey's eyes went wide with surprise, and he said, "Wow, that's strange… maybe she had some unexpected Wonderbolt stuff to deal with?"

"That's what I was telling her," replied Twilight. "And I'm sure that Rainbow will make it up to Scootaloo somehow tomorrow… I mean, it's not like she's in danger or anything."

Casey let out a chuckle, and said, "Yeah, I'm sure all or one of us would know if Rainbow was in some kind of trouble."

* * *

As he dragged his burlap sack up to another house in Canterlot, the cloaked pony stopped for a moment to relax, and take a few deep breaths.

"Huh… so _this_ is where they came from?" He said, moving the burlap sack that contained the unconscious forms of Moondancer, Lyra Heartstrings, Lemon Hearts, Twinkleshine, and Minuette into a bush.

Then, the cloaked pony trotted up to the door, giving a swift knock, and it was answered by none other than Night Light, the father of Twilight Sparkle and Shining Armor.

"Oh, hello, sir… is there something I can help you with?" He asked.

"Indeed you can," the cloaked pony said before striking.

 _###############_

Twilight Velvet, Night Light's wife, had been enjoying a nice night with her husband watching the stars… but the knock on their door had, quite honestly, annoyed her.

' _Who would be knocking at this hour_?' The mare thought.

However, when Night Light didn't return for a few minutes, she got curious, so the mother of Twilight and Shining went to check the door, as well.

She entered through their home's front door and to the grey pony's horror, her husband was laid out on the floor, unconscious.

"Night Light!" She screamed before she felt a prick on her flank, and a few seconds later, everything went black.

 _###############_

With tonight's goal now successfully completed, the cloaked pony started to carry his burlap sack back to his lair, but he was having some slight trouble with that.

 _'Why did I think nabbing this many at once was a good idea?!'_ The cloaked pony thought to himself in anguish, but although he was suffering now, he knew his goal was all the more closer to being realized.

" _I'll deal with the two sisters later,"_ hemuttered. " _Which reminds me… note to self - only put two ponies inside of this thing."_

* * *

 _Twilight's Castle_

As Casey and Twilight looked at the malfunctioning world-travel machine, he said, "It's times like this when I wish I still had my wristwatch communicator."

"What happened to it?"

Casey made a gesture over to the Crystal Mirror, and replied, "That one version of Rainbow Dash still has it after… eh, never mind, too confusing… all I know is that it's gone, and it would take me almost forever to make a new one."

Noticing the sad expression on his face, Twilight asked, "You miss him, don't you?"

"Well, obvi… I mean, yes, I do," replied Casey, not wanting to sound rude. "But my friends in _this_ world come first… and l haven't really been doing so well in that department."

Remembering all of the invitations that she had sent out earlier today, Twilight started to smile, and she said, "Don't worry… I'm sure you'll be doing great, in no time."

Taking a quick moment to yawn, Casey replied, "That's the idea… well, I'm off to bed… night, Twilight."

"Sweet dreams, Casey," said the young alicorn, and as her special somepony left the library, she took another look at the Crystal Mirror.

 _Why do I have a strange feeling that something bad is going to happen?_


	5. Stranger Things, Part 3

**MLP: Seeds of the Past**

 _ **Chapter 5 - Stranger Things, Part 3**_

 _ **Author's Note:**_ _"My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" belongs to DHX Media and Hasbro._

 _And thank you, FanficFan920, for helping me with pretty much most of the kidnapping scenes in this story, as well as a few in here… I owe you one!_

* * *

" _And, there we… go!"_

Letting out a huge sigh of relief, Rarity began putting away her newest creation, saying, "Casey is sure to love what I made for him! Don't you agree, Swe- _oh, wait_ … _"_

Remembering that she had sent Sweetie Belle to her bed a while ago, Rarity chuckled quietly, to herself, and said, "She's more than likely asleep by now… oh, well, I can always so it to her tomorrow."

The slight thought of sleep enticed Rarity very much, but her stomach was telling her a different storu, so she decided to head into the kitchen, and prepare herself a nice warm beverage.

 _Squeak!_

"Sweetie Belle?"

The unicorn turned around, but she didn't see any sign of her little sister, so Rarity just shrugged, and continued to make herself a drink.

A few minutes later, she was carrying the beverage with her upstairs, with her destination being her bedroom, but as Rarity entered though, the young unicorn noticed that her window was open.

"Oh no!" Rarity said, letting out a gasp. "Somepony must have-"

 _"Heh-heh… smart mare_ ," the fashionista heard behind her, before she felt a prick on her flank, and the cloaked pony watched as Rarity slowly collapsed to the floor. " _Nighty-night!"_

However, before he could place her inside of his burlap sack, Sweetie Belle had exited her room, and was now coming into her sister's room, letting out a yawn before she spoke.

"Rarity, if you had that plaid nightmare again, I swear..."

Then, she stopped after noticing the cloaked pony standing over the unconscious form of her sister, and the only thing Sweetie Belle thought to do in that moment was to run and find help.

However, just as she turned, she felt a prick on her flank, and darkness began permeating her vision.

" _Help_ ," she muttered before she completely lost consciousness.

Putting Rarity aside for a second, the cloaked pony picked up Sweetie Belle in a way that one would a baby, and walked over to her room so that he could place her back in her bed, along with tucking her in.

Then, the cloaked pony flashed a half smile at the sleeping filly before exiting the room, and returning his attention to the fashionista unicorn. " _I hope you like chains, 'darling'..."_

* * *

 _The next day_

After finishing one of the chapters in the book that he'd been reading for a while now, Casey decided to join the rest of his friends, who were all in the Throne Room… but, for some reason, he wasn't allowed in.

"Sorry, Casey, but it's what Twilight said," said Starlight, giving her friend a shrug.

 _Great,_ thought Casey. _There's gonna be a party that I already know about, and I can't even-_

"Want to work on flying a kite?"

Remembering what he had said last night, Casey began to smile, and he replied, "Sure, Star… but maybe at a place where there isn't much trees, okay?"

So, while the two of them left, Twilight and the rest of the Mane 6 - minus Rainbow and Rarity - were all talking about the party they'd be having for Casey.

"I still think it's gonna be weird with so much versions of us runnin' around your castle, Twi," said Applejack.

"Don't worry, AJ," assured the young princess, giving her friend a smile. "I'll make sure that we all know who is who… and, sorry, Pinkie, but no using your _jumbo party cannon_ , or whatever it is you're working on."

Pinkie gave a shrug, and she replied, "That's fine, I'll just use it for when we have the Friendship Fe-"

" _Um… Twilight? There's somepony here to see you."_

The group of friends watched as Spike brought in a mare with a beige coat, pigment blue mane with a rose pink streak, and cerulean eyes, she seemed to be looking a little unnerved.

"Hiya, Bon Bon, what brings you down here?" Pinkie wondered.

"It's Lyra." Bon Bon explained, who looked very concerned. "She told me she was visiting Moondancer and the others in Canterlot yesterday, and that she'd be back by the next morning…

"But it's already evening and she hasn't come back yet, so I'm starting to get worried."

Knowing who she was talking about, Twilight also began to ponder, ' _Another pony gone missing? That's odd.'_

"Don't worry, sugarcube," assured Applejack. "I'm certain the train just had a delay or somethin, it ain't _that_ out of the ordinary."

Unfortunately, Bon Bon shook her head, and replied, "That's just it! I was at the station all day waiting for her and it stayed on schedule."

Turning her attention back over to Twilight, she addes, "I have looked everywhere, Princess. Please, help me find my Lyra."

It was no secret that Lyra and Bon Bon were a _very close_ pair of friends around Ponyville; the two were practically inseparable.

Twilight, being with Casey, knew the feeling of worrying about someone you love, especially considering their adventures since meeting a certain gold-colored pony.

"Alright, Bon Bon, we'll help. Right guys?" Twilight asked the others.

"Of course," Applejack said. "I'd be happy to help."

Fluttershy nodded her head, and replied, "As soon as I head back to my home, and give Angel her lunch, I'll join everypony else to help."

"Yeah! Maybe we can even find Dashie too," Pinkie mentioned, and that made Applejack place her hoof against her forehead.

"Wait, what? Rainbow Dash is missing too?" Bon Bon asked, her pupils shrinking.

Twilight sent a death glare towards the pink pony, who gave her an apologetic look.

"What Pinkie _meant_ to say was that Rainbow's whereabouts have also been unknown for a day or two, but we're certain she just had a Wonderbolt activity she needed to get too and she didn't have time to tell us… _right,_ Pinkie?"

The young Earth pony nodded her head, and all of this managed to calm Bon Bon slightly.

"Okay, then, thank you, Princess," she said, even though her voice was still uneasy. "Thank you, everyone."

"That's what friends are for," replied Twilight, and a few minutes later, the young alicorn was in the library, looking for a certain book that she could use as a way of communication with a certain purple alicorn.

 _I have to make sure nothing wrong is going in with them._

* * *

No longer at her friend's castle, Fluttershy entered her humble adobe, and said, "Oh, Angel, I'm home!"

Now, usually, Angel would respond to the call immediately. He'd drag in a bowl and hold it up to his owner's face, demanding food.

However, this did not happen, to the yellow mare's confusion.

"Angel?" She called again, and flicked on the light to make the search for the "oxymoronically named" bunny easier.

Fluttershy looked high and low, but Angel was nowhere to be found. In fact,none of her other animal friends seemed to be around either… and she swore she was hearing someone from behind breathing.

"Discord?" she asked, hoping that this was some sort of prank the draconequees was playing.

No answer came.

Fluttershy grew more and more nervous as she continued to search the cottage for any sign of Angel, her animal friends, or even Discord.

Suddenly, she heard a switch flick and the lights went out, her fear increasing exponentially with each passing second.

"Hello?" she managed to squeak out as she entered her living room once more.

Suddenly, she felt a small tap on her back-right hoof, and a sense of relief flowed through the mare's body.

" _Angel Bunny_!" She turned around, ready to scold the little rascal for trying to scare her, but when she turned around, Fluttershy only saw another hoof... a light green one, if she wasn't mistaken.

Fright made a triumphant return as Fluttershy slowly lifted her head to get a glimpse of the pony's face. Once she did, the only thing her eyes met with was a deep, dark cavern that separated the cloaked pony's face with the world.

Fluttershy had never felt so scared in her life.

That is until…

"Boo," the cloaked pony muttered, and that was the last thing Fluttershy heard before everything went black. "Well… that worked out nicely."

A few minutes later, the cloaked pony was walking down the path that led to his secret lair,.with the burlap sack in his muzzle.

 _' 8 down, and plenty more to go_ ,' He thought to himself, a sly smile appearing on his face.

* * *

When Rarity finally awoke, she gently rubbed her flank, and said, " _Ugh, who would dare try to… oh… my…_ "

To her surprise, she was not the only pony in the room… or locked up in a cage, for that matter.

 _Moondancer, Lyra Heartstrings, Lemon Hearts, Twinkleshine, and Minuette… all still unconcious… but why is that cloaked -_

" _Rarity? You're here, too?"_

The young unicorn turned her head, and found herself looking at a Pegasus that looked oddly familiar.

"I'm sorry, um… have we met before?"

" _Yes, Rarity,"_ replied the young Pegasus. "It's me, Rainbow!"

Rarity turned her head to the side, confused. "I am so sorry, darling, but Rainbow is a _blue_ Pegasus, and _you_ are... well, not blue... in fact, you are actually-"

" _Well, well… looks like someone enjoyed their beauty sleep,"_ interrupted the cloaked pony, who was bringing over his burlap sack. " _And what luck, I even brought you a friend!"_

With a chuckle, he emptied out the sack, and Rarity saw another pony that looked familiar.

" _Fluttershy!"_ Then, she glared at her captor, and asked, "Why are you doing this to us?"

"Because you're all part of the plan," replied the cloaked pony, who was preparing a cage for Fluttershy. "A plan to make sure _justice_ _ **will**_ _be served!_ _ **"**_


	6. Stranger Things, Part 4

**MLP: Seeds of the Past**

 _ **Chapter 6 - Stranger Things, Part 4**_

 _ **Author's Note:**_ _"My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" belongs to DHX Media and Hasbro, while "Stardust" belongs to the Warrior of Twilight._

* * *

" _Well, I'm glad to know everything is doing fine over there… just keep an eye out for anything suspicious."_

Then, after writing out that last word, Twilight closed up the book, and let out a sigh.

"I don't understand why all of this happening," wondered the young alicorn, speaking to herself.

 _Maybe it's all an unfortunate coincidence that-_

However, her thoughts were interrupted by the sudden arrival of Spike, who burst through the library doors, and before she could say anything, a familiar pony ran inside, as well.

" _Twilight… cloaked pony, weird dart, Rarity, help!"_

"Okay, Sweetie Belle, just take it easy there," replied Twilight, trying to comfort the young pony. "Now, what happened to Rarity?"

After taking a few deep breaths, Sweetie Belle explained to her about the events that had taken place last night, and after handing over the dart that had been fired at her flank, she said, "So, when I woke up this morning, my sister was gone!"

Looking at the small object that was now in her hoof, Twilight thought about what Sweetie Belle had just told her, and then, she found herself having a flashback.

 _############_

 _Twilight!" Rarity yelled, but then, the cloaked pony aimed his staff at her._

 _ **Wham! Boom!**_

 _"No! Rarity!" Twilight watched as her friend transformed into a statue, just like everypony else._

 _She looked at the hooded figure, and yelled, "Who are you?"_

 _The sinister pony walked over to the princess, and said, "I'm someone that you should have never messed with."_

 _############_

"Twilight? You okay?" asked Spike.

A frown appeared on the young alicorn's face, and she replied, "Just fine… but I think we should definitely head out to Canterlot now."

Looking at Sweetie Belle, Twilight added, "Don't you worry, I'll get to the bottom of this… in the meantime, go look for Scootaloo, and help her try to find Rainbow Dash."

Giving the princess of friendship a salute, Sweetie Belle hurried out of the castle while Spike looked up at Twilight.

"You don't think it's _him_ again, do you?"

Twilight shook her head, and replied, "I don't see how, considering the place that Pinkie had sent him to.. but we need to put a stop to this before anypony else gets involved."

* * *

 _Sweet Apple Acres_

"How come you look so suspicious, Applejack?"

Looking down at her younger sister, and not wanting to worry her, the farm pony replied, "It's cause of what's been happenin' apparantly to certain ponies here in Ponyville and Canterlot… just keep an eye out for anythin' suspicious, okay, sugarcube?"

"Sure thing, sis," said Applebloom, nodding her head, and the little pony hurried over to finish up her daily chores while Applejack walked over to the barn.

Upon her arrival at the barn, she was very hesitant because, for all she knew, it could be occupied by an unknown pony wanting to ponynap her.

 _Especially considerin' that seems to be the new trend nowadays_ , thought Applejack, and the orang earth pony cautiously creaked open the barn door, preparing for what she might find on the other side.

"Hello? Anypony here?" Applejack asked as she made her way into the structure.

Turning her head from side to side, the pony who represented the Element of Honesy let out a sigh of relief. _Well, looks like I was just-_

 _WHOOSH!_

Then, all of a sudden, she felt a prick in her flank.

" _Yep. That... figures_ ," Applejack deadpanned as she fell into the hay that made up the barn floor, quickly becomimg unconscious, and a moment later, the cloaked pony leapt down from his perch above the barn door, softly singing a little tune.

" _Another one bites the dust. And another one gone, and another one gone, another one bites the dust_."

The cloaked pony continued the song mentally as he hauled the burlap sack containing the unconscious Applejack back to his lair, and he paused to say, "You have no idea how long I was waiting inside of that pla-"

" _Hey_!"

Suddenly, the cloaked pony stopped in his tracks, and muttered, "Dang it… _so close._ "

He turned around to find none other than Big Mac and Apple Bloom, with the pair of them giving him what could be only described as a death glare.

"You ain't takin' my sister no where!" Apple Bloom vowed.

"Yeeup," Big Mac agreed.

 _Oh, wow, my hooves are shaking,_ thought Beck, who rolled his eyes, and safely dropped the burlap sack.

"Cute," he remarked before charging at the eldest and youngest Apple siblings, an action the latter two reciprocated.

However, instead of outright attacking, the cloaked pony leapt over the two, blowing two darts into their flanks as he flew over.

 _Whoosh! Whoosh!_

Once the cloaked pony landed back on solid ground, and blew the smoke coming out of his weapon, it only took a second before Apple Bloom and Big Mac fell.

"Such a shame," the cloaked pony remarked, before making his way towards the unconscious form of Big Mac, whom he laid back against a tree in a somewhat comfortable position.

After that was taken care of, the cloaked pony scooped up a knocked-out Apple Bloom and just like what he'd done to Sweetie Belle, he took her back to her room, removing the dart from her flank as he placed her back in bed.

Then, he brushed his hoof through her red mane, a small smile gracing his face.

Once he did this, he returned outside to pick up the burlap sack, and while humming the tune that he'd been singing earlier, the cloaked pony started to head back to his secret lair.

* * *

 _[Stardust's World]_

After re-reading what her counterpart had told her about the things happening in her world, Twilight looked at the nearby Crystal Mirror, and let out a sigh.

 _If only I could just go there to help out, but the other me said that hers was malfunctioning, and if she or Casey aren't able to-_

"... you okay, Twilight?"

The young alicorn turned around to find herself looking at Rainbow Dash, and she nodded her head. "Yeah, everything is fine, Rainbow…"

Rainbow chuckled, and she replied, "Well, good… now, hold off on the reading for a moment, and help us continue preparing for the Friendship Festival."

As Twilight followed the pegasus out of the library, hoping that her other friends would be okay, Rainbow asked, "So, you have no idea why Stardust hasn't told you or any of us about what'll happen on the day of-"

"No, I'm sorry, Rainbow," replied Twilight, with a hint of annoyance and frustration. "But I'm positive it can't be _that_ bad… or else he would have told us about it already."

* * *

After having enough kite-flying fun with Starlight, Casey decided to take a quick visit over to his old house.

On the way there, the light-orange earth pony was wondering more about what Twilight and the others would give him as birthday gifts, but his thoughts were interrupted by a familiar voice.

" _Well, isn't this a surprise? I thought you'd be with Golden Ponyboy or whatever his name is."_

Rolling his eyes, Casey looked up at the floating draconequs, and said, "Hey, Discord… shouldn't you and Fluttershy be having a tea party, or something?"

"As a matter of fact, we _were_ supposed to," replied Discord. "But she never answered the door… and I find that strange since she usually never _not_ open the door when I arrive."

"Well, why not just _'poof'_ your way in?" suggested Casey. "You do that to go inside Twilight's castle, and pretty much everywhere else."

The draconequs let out a chuckle, and said, "In _those_ cases, my friend, it's _fun_ , but with Fluttershy, it wouldn't be the right thing to do, especially since she's my B.P.F.F.E.T.T, or in _simpler terms,_ my ' _Best Friend For Eternity Times Two_ ' - oh, my, that is really _not_ a pretty sight."

"What are you - _aaagghh!_ " Casey cried, seeing what the now-gone Discord had been talking about.

All of the flowers that he'd left in respect for his parents were now grey and shrivled up, and his old house now looked even more worse than before.

 _Who would do something like this?_

* * *

With her mentor and her assistant in Canterlot, and Casey busy with his own personal stuff, Starlight Glimmer was left with the responsibility of holding down the fort in Ponyville… or, for right now, having the peaceful-sounding castle all to herself.

 _I can't even remember the last time it was ever this quiet,_ thought the reformed - and comfortable - unicorn, who was reading an adventure book in the castle's library, a hobby she'd taken up from Twilight.

Unfortunately, she was so engrossed in her book, Starlight didn't hear the sound of the library nor did she notice a sinister figure slowly creep up behind her.

What she did notice was the pain in her exposed flank, which was due to the design of the chair she was sitting in.

" _Yeeouch_!" she said before turning around to see what hit her.

 _If that's one of the CMC's again, Celestia forbid…_

However, it wasn't any of the three little ponies, though she would soon end up hoping it was

Instead, she came face to face with none other than a cloaked pony that she first thought seemed familiar.

 _No, that… it can't be… impossible!_

Starlight tried to say something, but the darkness permeating her vision and exhaustion flowing through her body had other plans.

As she went limp in her chair, the cloaked pony made a "tsk tsk tsk," sound, and shook his head.

"Seriously, why isn't there more security in this place? Especially _now_ of all times," he muttered to himself as he took out his burlap sack.

' _Oh well, it just makes things all the more easier for me,'_ the cloaked pony thought as he placed the unconscious Starlight into it.

 _Now, then, if I remember correctly, the only ones missing from the Mane 6… aside from the princess…_

Then, the cloaked pony sighed in exasperation, for next on his hit list would be none other than Pinkie Pie.

 _I might actually have trouble with that non-questionable pony._


	7. Things Get Worse

**MLP: Seeds of the Past**

 **Chapter 7 - Things Get Worse**

 **Author's Note: _"My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" is owned by DHX Media and Hasbro._**

* * *

As she listened to one of her closest friends begin to release some tears, Rainbow decided to try and make her feel better.

"Don't worry, Fluttershy, I'm sure once Twilight and Casey learn what's happened to us, they'll find this place faster than you can say-"

Suddenly, Rainbow's words of comfort were interrupted by the sudden appearance of-

" _Discord!"_ yelled Fluttershy, who was quickly becoming filled with happiness instead of fear.

"Golly, you don't know how happy we all are to see ya here right now," said Applejack, after letting out a sigh of relief. "But, uh, _how_ did you know we'd be here?"

The draconequs chuckled, and he replied, "Let's just say that after the incident with Chrysalis and the Changelings, I learned how to be able to-"

 _WHACK-WHACK-WHACK-WHACK-WHACK-WHACK!_

Discord turned his head to see that a _lot_ of the cloaked pony's darts had been shot into his back, as well as his tail, and he said, "Huh… should've seen that one coming."

Then, a few seconds later, he collapsed to the floor, and as he began snoring quietly, Fluttershy started to feel afraid again.

* * *

 _BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP!_

After pressing a button on his communicator device, the cloaked pony let out a small laugh.

"That takes care of the draconequs… and now, it's time to take care of Pinkie Pie."

Luckily, the party-throwing pony was walking by herself, with nopony else around except him, but as he observed Pinkie from behind a bush, the cloaked pony knew that she could be a challenge for him.

 _I'll see if this works, but if not, then things might be complicated…_

After taking a deep breath, the cloaked pony removed his hood (so he wouldn't seem too suspicious), and started to walk away from his hiding place. " _Oy, Pinkie Pie!_ "

Pinkie stopped moving after hearing her name, and she turned around to see an unfamiliar pony walk towards her.

" _Hi, new pony!_ I've never seen you around before-"

"Yeah, I figured as much," replied the sinister pony, in a deadpan manner. "Now, could you do me a favor, and take a quick look inside this sack for me?"

 _Please let this work… please let this - huh?_

To his surprise, Pinkie nodded her head, and she said, "Sure! You havin' trouble finding something?"

As she began to search through the burlap sack, the young pony thought, _I can't believe it actually worked-_

"Oh, hey, Starlight! Why are you in here?"

 _Oh, snap!_

 _WHOOSH!_

" _Um… why is everything getting so… dark?"_ muttered Pinkie, before eventually becoming unconcious, and after putting his hood back over his head, the cloaked pony stuffed the rest of her body into the burlap sack that now contained two more of Twilight's friends.

 _Eleven down, and seven more to go,_ he thought while continuing down the path to his secret lair.

 _And now that I've gotten the 'main 5' out of the Mane 6, as well as the princess' pupil, it's time for me to finally focus on catpuring the so-called rulers of Equestria- ow!_

Feeling a sudden sharp pain in his back, the cloaked pony paused to relax for a little bit, and he growled, "Okay, I _really_ need to get used to carrying two ponies in here with me."

* * *

For the first time in his life, Ride Along felt like he was getting punished.

 _It's only been a week since he was transferred to Canterlot from Fillydelphia_ , thought the unicorn police officer. _And I havn't been able to make a siren sound ONCE!_

Rumors had actually circled around the department that he had been transferred due to his insufferable siren sounds annoying the chief too much.

Luckily for him, however, today would be the day that he'd finally be able to make the sound he loved so much once more.

" _Ride Along_!" The chief of the Canterlot PD called from his office.

"Yes, sir, Chief, what can I do for you?" asked Ride Along as he stood at attention.

"We've just received a report of a break-in that occured last night at the home of Twilight Velvet and Night Light," explained the Chief. "I need you to check it out."

"You got it, Boss!" Ride Along acknowledged ecstatically, and just like that, he began his siren sound as he departed from the Chief's office.

 _Woooooooo…. woooooooo…. woooooooo!_

Once he was gone, the Chief let out a sigh, and muttered, "It still amazes me how in Celestia's name he was able to graduate from the police academy."

* * *

 _A few hours later_

"I just don't get it, Spike. Why would somepony want to capture Rarity, Rainbow, and my Canterlot friends?"

After making their arrival in Canterlot, Twilight and Spike had started to search for Moondancer and the others, looking in places such as the local library, their usual eating spot, and even the courtyard where they'd thrown the light yellow-grayish pony a "make-up" party.

Unfortunately, they hadn't recieved much luck, and the young alicorn was feeling a little disappointed at not being able to find out _anything_.

"And who in the world of Equestria could it possibly be?'

Spike took a moment to think, and then, he replied, "Well, it could be some of the Changelings that _weren't_ affected by-"

"No, it can't be them," said Twilight. "Otherwise, we would have seen one disguised as Lyra, Minuette, and so on."

"Okay, so… maybe it's Rowan again, trying to get revenge?"

"He _is_ a possibility," replied Twilight, even though she looked unsure. "But I also highly doubt it since the world that he got sent to was blown up by some weird, demonic version of Pinkie."

Her faithful dragon friend/top assistant thought about who else it could be, and then, he said, "Maybe it's that one gold pony?"

Twilight turned her head to look at him, with a confused expression. "Why would you think it'd be _him_?"

Spike shrugged his shoulders, and replied, "I'm just giving you all of the possibilities, Twilight."

Before she could respond to his statement, Twilight realized that they were getting close to reaching a familiar place of residence, and she was startled to find that it was surrounded in police tape.

"Mom and Dad's house?!" Twilight shouted, quickly forgetting her search in order to see what happened, and as the two of them ducked under the police tape to enter the home, which was currently being sweeper by police ponies, she found a familiar face.

"Shining Armor!"

" _Twily! Spike!_ Thanks for coming!" Shining said, sounding slightly worried.

"What happened here?" Spike asked.

"You don't know? I figured that you would have gotten a letter," explained the co-ruler of the Crystal Empire. "I mean, _I_ did…"

"No, we didn't," Twilight said, whose feelings of worry and fear were starting to grow. "Shining, what's going on?"

Her B.B.B.F.F. let out a sigh, and replied, "Mom and Dad are missing, Twily."

" _What?!_ " exclaimed both Twilight and Spike, but before they could say anything else, an officer pony started to come towards them from the kitchen.

"I'm afraid your brother is right, Princess Twilight," said Ride Along, who had just completed his examination. "The only good news… sort of… is that from what we could gather, there was no sign of struggle, so the perpetrator must have had some way to subdue them.

"But not to worry, we'll get a search party going right away to sweep the immediate area."

After learning that their parents had not been hurt (yet), Twilight and Shining felt a tiny bit better, but the young princess said, "This is starting to become scary."

"I know, Twily," Shining replied, trying to speak in a soothing tone. "I know..."

"Not just this," the Princess of Friendship clarified, and after noticing her brother's confusion, she started to explain more.

"The whole reason I'm in… I mean, me and Spike are in Canterlot is because we were investigating a disappearance of a friend of ours from Ponyville, Lyra Heartstrings, but when we arrived, we learned that Moondancer, Minuette, Lemon Hearts, and Twinkleshine were all missing too, and we've been searching almost everywhere for the past two hours."

Spike nodded his head, in agreement, and added, "Plus, what's worse is that somepony captured Rarity! Oh, and Rainbow's gone missing, too!"

" _What?!_ " exclaimed a surprised Shining.

" _Eight_ ponies going missing in the span of a day or two… _and_ a pony-napping?" said Ride Along, before Spike could continue to speak. "This is definitely _not_ a coincidence."

Turning his attention over to Twilight, the officer pony said, "We'll expand the search to incorporate your Canterlot friends, Princess Twilight, and I'll inform the Chief about your fashion-smart friend, as well."

The young alicorn nodded her head, and said, "Thank you, Officer… um..."

"Ride Along, ma'am."

"Thank you very much, Officer Ride Along," replied Twilight, who was now starting to worry about the rest of her friends back in Ponyville, and she began heading out of the house, with Spike following after her.

"Hold on, Twilight, I'm coming with you," said Shining Armor. "Oh, and good luck, Officer Ride Along."

The officer pony nodded his head, and replied, "And the same to the three of you, as well."

Once they were outside, Spike took another look at the house, and said, "Huh, I feel like I've met him somewhere before."

As for Shining, he placed a comforting hoof on his sister's shoulder, which caused her to look up at him.

"Don't worry, Twily, we'll find everypony."

A smile appeared on Twilight's face, and she said, "Thank you, B.B.B.F.F…"

 _I just hope that the rest of my friends are safe._

* * *

Not paying attention to the fact that Twilight's castle was empty, for the moment, Casey headed straight to the library once he was inside.

"I really hope you're not busy or anything, man," muttered the young pony, and once he had reached his destination, Casey activated the world-traveling machine.

 _Well, here goes nothing!_

Luckily, there was no sign of any electricity, so as fast as possible, Casey headed straight through the Crystal Mirror…

… and found himself entering a darkened room that he did not recognize.

 _Where the [BEEP] am I?_ wondered Casey. _And why do I feel like saying stuff like [BEEP] or whatever [BEEP] that's usually said by-_

" _Hey, hey, hey…"_

Before he could think about anything else, the lights went on, and Casey turned around to see what appeared to be Fluttershy, but with a voice that was similar to the one she'd gotten after walking through a patch of poison joke.

" _What did I tell you 'bout coming into my shed?"_

She was also carrying some sort of mechanical device that looked completely dangerous, and Casey gulped, yelling, " _[BEEP] that! I'm out of this [BEEP]!"_

 _WHOOSH!_

A few seconds later, the young pony tumbled out of the mirror, as well as returning to the library, but while he stood up, the Crystal Mirror machine quickly started to shut down automatically, much to his disappointment, and he let out a groan.

 _Great, I can't even go and warn my friend about this… now what?_


	8. A Royal Capture, Part 1

**MLP: Seeds of the Past**

 _Chapter 8 - A Royal Capture, Part 1_

 _Author's Note: "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" belongs to DHX Media and Hasbro._

 _Also, thanks again to FanficFan920 for helping me greatly with this chapter!_

* * *

Nighttime was approaching in Canterlot, and after waiting for the arriving passangers to leave the Friendship Express, Twilight and Spike, along with Shining Armor, climbed aboard the train, with the little dragon saying, "Well, at least we know that the culprit is a pony… which is a good thing, right?"

Nodding her head, the young alicorn replied, "There's also a connection that I'm starting to notice, as well… I just hope we can figure it out before anypony else gets captured."

* * *

 _A few hours later_

 _Canterlot Palace..._ _the most protected place in all of Equestria,_ _home of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna_ … _and, boy, does it look amazing in moonlight._

After leaving the train station, the cloaked pony was now sitting on the edge of a mountaintop above the palace, watching the moon's glow fall on the capital city of Equestria, as well as the palace, and with a heavy sigh, he played his recording device one more time.

" _Hi sweetheart, your father and I just wanted to thank you for the flowers for our anniversary yesterday. You are an amazing stallion and I can't believe how much you've grown up. Hold on, your father wants to say something."_

" _Hey Champ. Thanks for the flowers. I hope we can get the chance to spend some time together soon. We barely see you anymore, what with work and all. Your mother and I both love you. See you soon."_

Once he listened to the message from his parents, he pocketed the recording device, stared at the castle in an analyti manner, and reached inside his cloak to pull out his grappling gear.

 _"I'm about to kidnap royalty,"_ he said to himself, reminding himself of what he liked to call his 'Mission: Impossible' phase. " _Well, here goes nothing."_

He placed the grappling end of the rope, along with the rope spindle, into the dirt, tugging on it to make sure it was stable, and tied himself to the other end of the rope while mentally singing a familiar tune for the situation.

 _Dun-dun-dun, dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun!_

Moments later, the cloaked pony was making his way down the cliff, aiming for one of the castle's many balconies, the night being his protection from detection.

However, what he didn't plan on was the rope starting to give way about halfway down.

 _Holy [BEEP],_ thought the cloaked pony as he fell, but fortunately, the rope only had enough length to just reach the balcony he intended.

However, when he opened his eyes, having closed them for fear he would go splat, he noticed his body was hanging parallel to the balcony foor, barely an inch above it.

' _Whew_ ,' the cloaked pony thought to himself, wiping away the sweat on his forehead before carefully unhooking himself from the rope, and then, he placed it around a torch on the castle's wall.

 _Alright, then… it's show time!_

Preparing his darts and tube, he began his careful trek through the castle halls that would lead him to the quarters of Princess Luna.

However, once he turned a corner, the cloaked pony noticed two guards slowly walking in the direction that would lead them to him.

 _Well, at least this castle 'has' guards, unlike the one owned by a certain purple alicorn..._

So, after readying his tube and two darts, the cloaked pony hid in the shadows, and once the two guard ponies had passed, he fired a dart into their flanks, incapacitating them.

 _Bullseye!_

Then, he dragged them behind some curtains, in hopes that other guards that passed through here wouldn't notice them until he was long gone… though he wasn't counting on that, and sometime later, the cloaked pony repeated this process on two more guards he found guarding Luna's door.

' _Now, for the tricky part_ ,' the cloaked pony thought as he cracked open the door.

Luckily for him, Luna seemed to be asleep, but he knew that she was "lucid dreaming", due to the fact that it was her duty as princess of the night to step into ponies' dreams, with his little colt having been one of those ponies.

 _But I'll go down memory lane later… I have a job to do..._

After making sure that no one else was around except for himself, the cloaked pony crept into the royal bedroom, keeping his ears peeled for any sounds, whether it be from a waking Luna or from castle guards.

Luckily, he managed to reach the Princesses' side without hearing anything but his own four hooves.

However, little did he know, Luna was a bit busy with a certain sleeping pegasus at the moment.

* * *

 _[Fluttershy's Dream]_

All of the cages that had contained her friends were now gone, leaving Fluttershy in the darkened room, caged up and all by herself.

 _Please, somepony, anypony… help me!_

" _Fluttershy?"_

The yellow pegasus lifted her head up, and found herself looking at Princess Luna, whose bright aura of white light was removing most of the darkness in the room.

"Oh, Princess Luna, thank goodness you're here," cried Fluttershy, with a sense of hope inside her. "Something terrible has happened!"

Luna looked around the dark room, with a somewhat confused expression, and replied, "Yes, my friend, I can tell… but what exactly is happening in this dream?"

Wiping the tears away from her eyes, Fluttershy replied, "It's the same that is happening in real life, Princess Luna… somepony captured me and a whole lot of other ponies that-"

" _Ow!"_

Suddenly, she was interrupted by the sound of pain that came from the royal alicorn, who began rubbing the right side of her flank.

"What in Equestria was... that… _and… why do I… feel..._ "

It took a moment for Fluttershy to understand what was happening, and she cried, "Oh, dear… t-that means you're about to- _Princess Luna_!"

To her horror, the princess of the night collapsed to the floor, and started shaking her head after she saw Luna begin to fade away.

" _Why is this happening?!"_

* * *

Once the cloaked pony heard Luna's breathing slow down again after he inserted the dart into her flank manually, he removed the sheets completely from the princess' bed.

 _Wow, so it doesn't work on just tables!_

Then, while gently pulling her by the tail with his mouth, he carefully put Luna into his trusty burlap sack, and at first, he found himself letting out a sigh of relief.

Once he lifted the sack again, however, he realized that the halfway-completed task would be another physically demanding one.

' _Good grief, this is going be like last night all over again,_ ' the cloaked pony thought, remembering how he had to capture Twilight's parents and five Canterlot friends, and the physical demand it took for him to do so.

Ignoring the physical stress he was enduring, the cloaked pony looked out the window to get a glimpse of his next target's balcony. Seeing as how he wanted to avoid as many guards as possible, the cloaked pony pulled out another grappling gun, placed the burlap sack containing the unconscious Luna onto the balcony floor, and after taking aim, he fired.

 _Whoosh!_

The hook took flight into the night air, and after a few seconds of air time, it managed to get caught on the balcony of Celestia's quarters.

After a quick tug to make sure it was stable, the cloaked pony tied his end of the rope around the balcony of Luna's quarters, and made haste in tying a knot around the opening of the tack.

Then, a few minutes later, he made it so that he (and the sack, on its own) could safely travel between the two balconies.

So, after he transported the sack with Luna inside, the cloaked pony took a deep breath, and said, "Alright, then… it's my turn now."

Just as he did on his descent to the castle, the cloaked pony slipped into a harness and was about to swing from one side to the other when he found himself remembering a certain occasion he had in his younger days.

Back then, the young cloaked pony (though obviously not wearing a cloak in this case) and a beautiful mare that would eventually be his future wife, whose name was Twinkle Star, used to have regular triple dates with some other couples that they had become friends with, and one of them was Carrot Cake and Chiffon Swirl, while the other was Bright Mac and Buttercup.

While the Apple couple had only gotten married recently, the other two couples had only been dating for a few months.

The cloaked pony relished those times, when he was young, stupid and had thought he was invincible.

 _How I wish that I could have those days back._

Anyway, on one such occassion, the six of them were enjoying a wonderful picnic when Twinkle Star suddenly said something unexpected.

* * *

 _[Flashback]_

"Did I ever mention that Mr. Gardener over here used to have a crush on Princess Celestia?"

Everyone turned their heads to look over at Twinkle's boyfriend, whose face started to turn red with embarassment. "Um… I don't know what she-"

"Wait an apple pickin' minute," said Bright Mac,confused and surprised. "You had a _crush_ on the ruler of Equestria?"

Before her special somepony could respond, Twinkle replied, "Yep! I mean, I used to like Wind Rider, from the Wonderbolts, but when I learned that his crush was-"

"Alright, I think they get it," muttered Twinkle's boyfriend, now feeling embarrassed. "Thank you, sweetheart."

Carrot began to chuckle, and he said, "Um, not to offend you, buddy, but isn't she at a much higher age than you?"

"Yes, I was aware of that," replied Twinkle's special somepony. "But somepony like me could still dream, righ - _oof_!"

* * *

The cloaked pony came out of his nostalgic reverie when he noticed he had finally reached the other end of his rope.

 _Well, that was a good thing, actually… the less I think of those two, the better._

After a tedious untying process, he crept over to the sleeping Princess of the Sun, and made ready with his special knock-out dart.

He pulled the sheets back to reveal the royal pony's flank, but just as he was about to send the dart into it, a paper suddenly materialized in front of the royal, waking her up from her slumber.

'Shit!' the cloaked pony mentally cursed as he hid under the Princess' bed.

"What?" Celestia said sleepily as she gazed at the scroll. Once she was able to make out the words however, she was wide awake.

"This is terrible! Don't worry, Twilight, I'll be sure to tell Luna, as well," she said quietly, to herself. "She should be awake right now…"

' _Shit! Shit! Shit_!' the cloaked pony cursed. He pulled out his tube, seeing as how he would definitely need it since Celestia was now rushing towards her balcony door to fly to her sister's room.

However, once she noticed her door was open, she became confused. "I could have sworn that I closed this… and why is there a rope-"

 _Whoosh!_

Before she had time to react, she felt a prick on her flank, and although she had just woken up, the Princess of the Sun immediately fell into an unconscious state of sleep.

"That was close," muttered the cloaked pony, but just as Celestia fell, two guards burst in to inspect the commotion. _Well, that's just great!_

"Hold it right there!" They both said, seeing the cloaked pony and immediately charging for him, spears in hand.

However, the cloaked pony was faster, and they quickly recieved darts to the neck, which eventually led to them being knocked out.

Turning back to the fallen Princess of the Sun before him, the cloaked pony remembered what he'd thought about earlier, and quickly pecked her on the cheek before placing her with her sister in the burlap sack.

"Not exactly how I always dreamed of doing that, but hey, I'll take it," he muttered as he did so, with a growing smile appearing on his face, but that ended up going away because the cloaked pony knew he had to move quickly.

 _No doubt that guards would be on me faster than Pinkie Pie to a party._

So, he hoisted the burlap sack onto his back, holding the opening in his mouth and made a break for it, but now that was holding two full-grown alicorns in his bag, the grappling hook between the balconies was moving at a much slower pace.

' _I really need to stop putting multiple ponies in here,'_ the cloaked pony thought to himself.

"Freeze!" he heard as a multitude of guards stepped into his way, and the cloaked pony skidded to a stop, right before he could leave from Celestia's balcony.

 _Again, this is_ _ **just**_ _what I need right now!_

"Lower the sack!" the guards ordered, and the cloaked pony complied.

 _ **Insert "Ferry Dust Up" from the SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING soundtrack**_

"Get down on your knees!" the guard ordered.

" _Yeaaaaaaaaahhh_ ," the cloaked pony drew out, in a heavily sarcastic tone. "That is obviously _no_ t happening, so-"

 _Whoosh!_

He took out his small tube and several darts, and shot them one-by-one in rapid succession into the necks of a few guards.

"Get him!" One of the guards screamed before the rest of the guards, who weren't incapacitated, charged towards the cloaked pony.

 _Time to go into Plan B!_

He picked up the burlap sack in his mouth once more, stowing the tube and darts for later, and charged as well.

Using all the strength he had, the cloaked pony used the sack like a wrecking ball, knocking away a few guards that dared to get close.

After getting tired of that, the cloaked pony made a leap towards the wall. Using his back left hoof, he propelled himself off the wall into some more guards, delivering swift punches to the head using nothing but his hooves while simultaneously swinging the sack around to cause more damage.

 _Who would've thought that working out so much would actually come in handy one day?_

After incapacitating one guard in particular, he took his spear into his hooves and used that to incapacitate a few more guards, even gravelly injuring some from behind, in front, and to the side while using it.

Out of the corner of his eye, he found another guard charging at him from behind. Thusly, the cloaked pony gave him a good buck to the face, sending him flying into some more guards.

After doing that, and swinging the burlap sack around again, which knocked down a few more guards for the count, the cloaked pony raced towards the wall again, jumped, banked off it and landed on the heads and/or backs of a few more guards, knocking them to the ground.

However, just as he landed, a guard body slammed into the cloaked pony, which led him to slam against a wall quite hard, but he still managed to shake it off quickly as he swung the sack around once again, and again, to take out some more guards.

 _Does anypony not know the meaning of 'leave me alone', or what?_

Once the sack made another full swing, he jumped up as high as he could and banked off the wall with his back right hoof, and held out his front right one so that he could deliver another hard punch on another guard.

Then, he snatched up his spear and used it to incapacitate some more guards, stabbing it into openings in their armor. He hated having to injure some of them, but he had a plan to accomplish and to him, that meant to do whatever it took to see it through.

One guard actually managed to pull off the hood of his cloak, revealing the stallion's green fur and black mane, but this did nothing to deter him, and so, the cloaked pony quickly punished him for this transgression by hitting him upside the head with his hoof.

The fight had already progressed down several yards of hallway, and because it was so many,Beck saw the balcony he entered through out of the corner of his eye.

 _Now, things are starting to turn my way again!_

Once he made it there, he placed the burlap sack down, and a guard yelled, "He's put the sack down! Get the Princesses!"

Several guards immediately charged, but the cloaked pony, with hood down, quickly responded by using his handy tube and darts that were on stand-by.

Once again using the wall as banking, the cloaked pony plowed into some more guards, and he was either punching them in the face with his hooves, or smashing two guards into each other through various means, whether it be bucking or with his hooves.

He noticed a guard or two got passed him to go for the sack, so he quickly turned and fired a dart into their flank, incapacitating them, while simultaneously bucking two guards in the face.

After a few more minutes of fighting like this, there were only a few guards left. One of which had actually managed to get passed the cloaked pony, eliciting him to turn, fill his tube with a dart, and shoot it.

Of course, it hit its mark on the guard's flank and he promptly fell with the other nine guards that had managed to get by him over the course of the fight.

Never caring about the pile of knocked out bodies, the cloaked pony once again grabbed a discarded spear and swung it upside a guard's head, sending him onto one of his fallen brethren.

 _Right then, I'd better get - aw, damn it!_

He had reached for his darts to make sure that the guards would stay down… only to find none, which meant that he had used up all the darts he brought with him.

"Well, this is definitely _not_ how I wanted this day to turn out," he rasped.

He finally had a chance to look over himself, amd noticed that he had a few tears in his cloak that gave way to some lacerations in his midsection.

He knew he had a splitting headache, probably from a few headshots some guards managed to get in, and more than a few bruises. He also inspected his legs to find them littered in lacerations as well, and…

' _Was that a dislocation_?' he thought to himself, as he tried to move normally.

"Holy mother of… yep, definitely a dislocation," the cloaked pony said, returning his hood over his face, sheltering it from the world. He'd have to inspect his face when he returned to his lair, no doubt it was probably messed up as well.

He limped his way toward the burlap sack, untouched since he put it down. Taking the sack's opening in his mouth, he tied a rope around the opening of the sack and attached it to the grappling rope.

Once he retrieved his own support from the torch he placed it on earlier, and made sure he positioned the sack where his hooves were beneath it, he pressed a button that caused the spindle of rope at the top of the cliff to rotate, bringing the cloaked pony, and the unconscious princesses, up the cliff.

"Alright, your majesties, let's blow this popsicle stand," the cloaked pony said as he began the ascent.

* * *

 _A few hours later_

Once he made it back the lair, the ponies and one draconequs he'd already captured looked at him, eyes widening at his condition.

"Well, look what the cat dragged in," Rainbow taunted.

"I'd very much appreciate it if you'd shut it, Pinky," growled the cloaked pony "I had a rough night, and I need to patch myself up."

Before Rainbow could respond to that, Pinkie Pie said, "Hey, that isn't right… _I'm_ Pinkie!"

"We _know_ that, darling," replied Rarity, letting out a sigh. "It's because that he changed her from blue to-"

"In the meantime," interrupted the cloaked pony. "Say hello to your new roommates."

Eyes widened and muzzles fell open as the eleven prisoners saw none other than Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, respectively, being put in separate cages… not to mention the fact that it looked like the two royals had several bruises.

'Hmmmmm, guess I was swinging harder than I thought,' the cloaked pony thought to himself, upon seeing the princesses' wounds.

The currently awake prisoners looked at the cloaked pony, with all of them astounded, yet frightened.

He had pony-napped two princesses, and took on the royal guard alone, and won.

"What can I say? The guards certainly tried their best," the cloaked pony commented, chuckling. He began limping away so that he could patch himself up, maybe even relocate that dislocation he felt back at the castle.

" _Who…. are you_?" Rainbow asked, voice wavering.

The cloaked pony stopped, and without looking back, he said, "Somepony that lost everything… and I'm going to make sure that the same happens to Twilight Sparkle."

Before the young pegasus could respond to him, a frowning Applejack exclaimed, "Wait an apple-picking minute! Just what in the day do you got against Twilight and the rest of us?"

 _Why does that sound familiar to me?_ wondered the cloaked pony, but then, Pinkie gave another unexpected response before he could give his.

" _Heeeeeyyyy_ … you aren't that Rowan pony who turned us into statues, are you?"

"Huh?" said Moondancer, not knowing what she was talking about.

Pinkie let out a chuckle, and she replied, "Well, it all started on a trip to the Crystal Empire, and we were talking to Starlight about how she liked Sunburst-"

"Oh, great…" muttered Twilight's pupil, as the pink earth pony continued her story.

 _An hour later_

"... and before I talk to Casey more, we were visited by a gold earth pony who wore a cloa- _ohhhh,_ are you Stardust?"

The cloaked pony looked at Pinkie, and he said, "First of all, my _name_ is _Beck_ , not _Rowan_ or...and _second,_ you _saw_ my face already. Now, do I _look_ like a monster pony, or someone that has a name of what a filly would recieve from her father?"

"Um, who is Stardust?" asked Moondancer.

Pinkie giggled, and she replied, "He's basically what Casey is here, but sort of, though, since Casey isn't actually a human being from another planet.

"Anyway, yeah, he shows up in the library, holding a turtledove necklace that…"

 _Two hours later_

"... so, as it turned out, Omega was _actually_ Casey, which is why he tried to-"

 _Whoosh!_

A few seconds later, Pinkie was fast asleep, and Beck muttered, "I should have done that four hours ago."


	9. A Royal Capture, Part 2

**MLP: Seeds of the Past**

 _ **Chapter 9 - A Royal Capture, Part 2**_

 _ **Author's Note:**_ _"My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" belongs to DHX Media and Hasbro, while Stardust Balance is owned by the Warrior of Twilight, and thanks again to FanficFan920 for helping me out with the kidnapping scenes!_

* * *

" _What is it with these two?"_

The elderly man, who watched over every single universe that currently existed, was not entirely pleased with what he saw was going on in Casey's world.

In regards to Stardust's world, Kronos was just glad that the gold pony wasn't getting himself into any serious trouble… well, for now, anyway.

" _He'd better not make me regret giving him a second chance… otherwise, I will be forced to-"_

" _Hey! Old timer!"_

Kronos turned around, looking at a group of ponies that were all locked up inside of a cage.

"How [BEEP]-in long do you plan on keeping us in here?"

With a smirk, the elderly gentleman replied, "As long as I like, Rainbow Crash… this way, you and everypony else will no longer cause any problems."

The evil version of Rainbow Dash let out a growl of frustration, and cried, "Just wait until Star gets his hooves on you, old man!"

"I highly doubt that will be happening anytime soon," said Kronos, in a calm and relaxed tone. "Besides, if he somehow does escape his imprisonment, then he'll end up _just_ like him."

He used his staff to point at a small canteen-like object that was also encased in a block of ice, and Anti-Pinkie asked, "Is somepony in that thing?"

"That's for _me_ to worry about," said Kronos, who had nothing else to say after that, and he continued with observing what was going on in Casey's world.

 _Hmmmm…_ _ **very**_ _interesting,_ thought the evil counterpart of Twilight, who preferred to be called Midnight, and a small smile appeared on her face.

* * *

The full moon was already high up in the sky by the time that Twilight, Spike, and Shining entered her castle after finishing their train ride to Ponyville from Canterlot.

"Spike, I need you to write a letter from me to Princess Celestia, explaining everything that's been happening, as soon as possible."

After the little dragon gave her a quick nod, Twilight turned her attention over to Shining Armor.

"You sure that Cadence won't mind you staying here for the night? I'd hate to make her feel worried or anything."

Shining chuckled at the young alicorn's concern, and he shook his head. "It'll be fine, Twilight, don't worry… also, how's Casey been doing? I haven't seen him since we showed the finished statues to you and the others."

Before Twilight could respond, there was a muffled _"boom"_ sound that came from upstairs, and the next thing they knew, a familar voice cried out, "I'm okay!"

Letting out a sigh, a smiling Twilight said, "He's doing just fine."

A few moments later, a worn-out and somewhat dirty Casey appeared at the top of the staircase, and after noticing the two of them, he gave a small wave. "Hey, Twilight… hey, Shining Armor! Haven't seen you in a while."

"Yeah, I was actually telling her the same thing about you," replied a confused Shining. "Uh… any reason why you look so-"

"Oops, sorry," said Casey, remembering why he'd been holding onto a small white towel, and he began wiping the soil off his face. "I've spent almost the whole day trying to fix the Crystal Mirror machine, but nothing seems to be working."

While Shining nodded his understanding, Twilight let out a sigh, and said, "Casey, I know you miss being with him, but what's going on right now is a little more important."

Noticing the worried looks on their faces, Casey started to feel concerned, and he asked, "What is it?"

* * *

 _A few minutes later_

"... so, as of this moment, one of these three ponies have captured Rainbow Dash, Moondancer, Lyra, Minuette, Lemon Hearts, Twinkleshine, Rarity, and even our parents."

After Twilight finished her explanation via bulletin board, Casey looked at the three pictures that had the word "suspect" written in red ink, and said, "Well, although this is really impressive… um, I don't get why you have Stardust listed as a suspect."

"He wears a cloak, right?" reminded Twilight, and that caused Casey to start laughing.

"Yeah, but I don't think he would do something like _that_ … I mean, especially since he has versions of them in his own world, so it doesn't make sense that-"

"Well, for now, he's guilty until proven innocent," said Twilight, while Casey rolled his eyes. "In the meantime, let's keep trying to repair the machine. Were you able to use it once, at least?"

Casey nodded his head, and while following her to the library, he replied, "Yup… and I really hope that Fluttershy _never_ decides to own a shed one day."

 _Or whatever the heck that world's version of her was about to use on me._

* * *

The next morning, while preparing all of his darts for the task that was ahead, Beck spent a few moments trying to ignore the pain in various areas of his body.

"One thing I'll admit right now," muttered the green Earth pony, taking a quick glance at the two royal sisters that were locked up in their own individual cage. "Your guards are very well trained."

Luna simply gave him a smirk in response while Celestia asked, "Who else do you plan on bringing here?"

"What, is the answer not obvious, your Highness?" replied Beck, giving his childhood crush a sly grin. "It's as clear as _crystal_ , after all…"

It took a moment for all of his prisoners to realize what he was talking about, and Rarity was the one who spoke the answer.

"Princess Cadence?"

The cloaked pony let out a chuckle, and said, "Looks like somepony's paying attention after all."

However, his smile went away after Rainbow Dash's response reminded him of the bruises that he currently had.

"And how do you expect to do that? With the sisters here, Cadance must have amped up her security ten-fold. You may have beaten up the guards from Canterlot, but there is no way you'll beat the ones in the Crystal Empire."

"Oh, I don't think so, _Pinky Dash_ ," replied Beck, who was now ready to leave. "I don't expect them to make things _too_ easy for me… I do _enjoy_ a challenge, after all…"

He paused to reveal an object that brought a look of fear and concern on his prisoners' faces.

"And I've always been fond of starting things off with a _bang_ … _hahahahaha!"_

* * *

Everypony inside of Twilight's castle were all currently asleep, and inside their own bedroom, but all of that was disrupted by a sound that no one wanted to be awoken by.

" _Whoo-whoo-whoo-whoo-whoo-whoo-whoo-whoo-whoo-whoo-whoo-whoo!"_

 _You cannot be [BEEP]-in serious,_ thought Casey, who was now walking towards the front doors after being unable to go back to sleep, and after he opened it-

" _Whoo-whoo-whoo-whoo-whoo- oh,_ sorry, sir," said Ride Along, the officer pony from Canterlot, and Casey gave him a slight nod. "Is Princess Twilight here?"

"Present," replied a yawning Twilight, now standing beside Casey while Spike and Shining were coming down the stairs. "How can I help you, Officer Ride Along?"

The law enforcer let out a sigh, and he said, "It's not easy for me to say this to you, but… the _'cloaked pony'_ who captured Rarity… and, at this point, probably everypony else we talked about… was successful in capturing both Princess Luna and Princess Celestia."

" _What?!"_ yelled the three ponies and young dragon.

Before Ride Along could say more, Applebloom appeared from out of nowhere, and cried, _"Twilight! Twilight! Some cloaked pony took my big sister away!"_

" _What?!"_ said everypony else, except for Applejack's little sister.

Then, a look of realization appeared on Casey's face, and he exclaimed, "Twilight… where's Starlight at?"

* * *

Everything seemed to be going as normal for the residents of the Crystal Empire. Despite the departure of their Prince, Shining Armor, for what was reported to be a personal reason, all was calm and orderly.

' _Guess I'll just have to shake things up a little,'_ Beck thought to himself as he walked along the the Empire's streets, uncloaked.

He was carrying five saddle bags, two of which contained his trusty tube, KOncoction darts, burlap sack, grappling gear, a megaphone, and a remote-like device, two others contained his little "surprise."

As for the last one? Well, _that_ was definitely a surprise…

" _Who's bright idea was it to build this castle with 3 legs as a foundation with an open bottom portion? Not exactly very smart, is it_?" Beck mused as he approached one of said three legs.

Without missing a step, discarded two of his saddle bags, making sure they were at least out of the way.

Then, the green furred stallion made his way too an alleyway between two buildings close to the castle. Once there, he removed the remote-like device from one of his two remaining saddle bags.

" _In 3… 2… 1… and_ …"

 **BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!**

A few seconds latee, screams of terror (and even a couple in pain) began just as the explosives went off.

"Sorry 'bout that," Beck mentally apologized to the ones screaming in terror as he quickly pulled out his grappling gun.

Running from the alleyway, luckily going unnoticed, due to the chaos, he fired the gun, managing to hook it on one of the castle's upper balconies.

Once he pulled on it for stability, Beck pressed the button on the device, which pulled him, and his precious cargo, up into the air.

* * *

 _Moments Earlier_

The last few days, contrary to the common ponies of the Empire, had actually been quite tense for one Princess Mi Amore Cadenza.

 _Why is all of this happening?_

With her husband's departure to Canterlot due to the disappearance of his parents to the news of the pony-napping of her Aunts Celestia and Luna, the Crystal Guard, temporarily led by Flash Sentry, had amped up security within the castle's walls.

Cadance was currently seated in her throne, about to take some disputes between some the Crystal Ponies, when, without warning, a loud explosion was heard and tremors began to be felt.

" _Oh, my Celestia_ …" gasped the pink alicorn, now feeling shocked and a little afraid.

"I believe that we now may be under attack, your Highness," pointed out a Crystal Guard.

A slight frown of annoyance appeared on Cadence's face as she said, "Yes, I can see that."

"Come on, we need to get you to a safe location," another guard said as Cadence descended from her throne, and quickly following the Guards.

" _But wait a moment… what about Flurry Heart_?"

"Not to worry, Princess," The first guard consoled. "Your daughter will be escorted by Sunburst and their detail to the rendezvous."

Cadence nodded her head, and said, "Alright, then… let us continue onward."

* * *

 _In another part of the castle_

"Come with us, Sunburst," Flash Sentry, said to the orange unicorn who was currently holding a crying young Princess Flurry Heart.

"Got it," Sunburst said and took off following Flash and three other guards who were to lead them away from danger, as well as trying his best to console the baby alicorn. "It's okay, don't be afraid… _shhhhhhh_ , everything's going to be fine, just close your-"

" _Oh, I wouldn't say that_ ," a voice said, before five darts were heard being shot out.

 _WHOOSH!_

The next thing Sunburst, Flash, and the other three guards of their detail felt was pricks to the flank, and once that happened, a cloaked figure rounded into the hallway, making his way with purpose towards the already weakening Sunburst.

" _Freeze! Hold it… r-right_ …" Flash Sentry slurred, trying to ready his spear. All he got in return was a hoof slap to the face before he succumbed to the darkness.

 **[AN: That was for you. You know who you are.]**

' _Pathetic_ ,' Beck noted as he passed by Sentry, and continued moving towards Sunburst. "I'll be taking her off of your hooves, thank you."

" _Nnnnnoooooo_ ," Sunburst said, turning around and kneeling to protect the infant alicorn. "You... won't... get her."

Beck chuckled, and he replied, "Oh, you must be mistaken. I have no intention on harming the little cutie pie."

Then, he shoved the knocked-out-cold babysitter over to find the little alicorn, who was sniffling due to the distressing atmosphere.

Luckily, the tremors the explosion created were all but subsiding, so the halls of the castle were once more graced with a regal silence.

"Hi, little one," Beck cooed, pulling down his cloak to reveal his face to Flurry as well as kneeling down to the little one's level.

" _Mama_ …" whined a teary-eyed Flurry, who was still sniffling.

"Don't worry, I'll help you find your mama," Beck said, wrapping his front hooves around the infant with tenderness.

Then, Flurry's face instantly brightened as if to say, "You will?"

"Uh-huh… come on," Beck said as he left the unconscious bodies of Sunburst, Flash, and the other three guards behind, while carrying the baby alicorn in a way that was similar to how he'd carry his son.

* * *

Cadance, having already evacuated the castle, was now anxiously waiting for the arrival of her daughter.

As it turned out, one of the castle's three legs was partially damaged as a result of the blast...enough to cause some slight instability, but not so that it would topple the structure.

"Where are they?" Cadance said, beginning to go into a slight panic.

"Not to worry, Princess, they should be exiting any second now," one guard said in an attempt to console her. "It is highly unlikely for-"

" _Attention, Crystal Idiots_!" yelled out an unfamiliar voice, and all of the Crystal ponies that had crowded near the castle all looked up to the balcony from Flurry Hearts room, where a figure holding a megaphone.

"Would anypony... like to tell me... why a castle that's supposed to both house and protect royalty... is built on three legs?" The figure, Beck, asked, confusing his audience below. "Cause it was pretty darn easy to blow some of it up and nearly topple the thing!

After seeing that everypony was now looking up at him, Beck added, "So… now that you're all paying attention… Princess Cadance, I believe I have something of yours!"

' _Please don't be what I think it is_ ,' one of Cadance's guards thought, as well as the princess herself.

"Your hash browns," Beck said, holding one up, and leaning on the railing for support so he can hold two things at once.

The aforementioned guard sighed in relief, while Cadence became a little confused.

"They are heavenly. Is there a recipe somewhere?"

Before anypony could give him an answer, Beck added, "Oh! And there's something else... come on out, sweetie,"

After seeing him put down the delicious food, many experienced a sharp intake of breath when Flurry Heart suddenly bounded onto the balcony, with her giggles conveying a message like, "Look at me!"

As for Cadance, she was bordering on hysterics. " _My baby!"_

"Geez, Princess, _get a grip_ ," Beck said through the megaphone. "So... here's what's going to happen.

"Unless this child's mother comes in through the castle to retrieve her ALONE..." Beck emphasized. "Everything will be a-ok. Failure to comply will result in... well, I can't say that now, a child is present."

After taking a moment for it to sink in, Beck looked at Flurry, and asked, "You want to use the megaphone, sweetie?"

Flurry nodded, and once it was in her hooves, she let out a cry that traveled throughout the kingdom, amplifying the fear of everyone who heard it.

I'm going in," Cadance said, determined, but then, she found herself being stopped by a castle guard.

"Your Highness, I fear that-"

"That is my _daughter_ , soldier," she said sternly. "As your ruler, I order you to stand down... Be prepared for when he'll eventually have to leave."

* * *

 _A few minutes later_

" _Why did Shining have to be in Canterlot_?" Candance said to herself as she approached Flurry's room, with the door already open, and expecting to see…

"Who's the cutest baby in the world? You are," Beck cooed as he played with the little alicorn.

… something that she figured would be worse.

" _Ahhhh, Princess Cadance... A pleasure to meet such a beautiful alicorn, as yourself._ "

A frustrated Cadance growled, "Save it… give me back my daughter _now_."

"No problem," replied Beck, speaking in a casual tone. "You just have to do one more thing."

"And what would that be exactly?" asked Cadence, who couldn't help but again feel a little surprised since this was not she had expected at all to come from him.

"That dart you see to your right..."

Cadance looked to her right to find a dart resting on the table.

"...just ram that baby into your flank and we're good."

A frown appeared on the princess' face after hearing those words, and said, "Now, hold on-"

" _Ah-ah-ah,"_ interrupted Beck, speaking in a disapproving tone. "Remember what I said earlier, princess?"

Cadance remembered… failure to comply resulted in Flurry being harmed.

"Well, you know the deal," said Beck. "Neither of us are gettin' any younger, my dear."

" _Fine_ ," she said, levitating the dart with her magic, and sticking it into her flank. "Now-"

However, Beck shook his head, and replied, " _All_ the way, now, princess."

Cadence just gave him a look, and then, she asked, "Does seeing me perform this act make you feel…"

"If you're about to say what I think you're going to say, then the answer is no," answered Beck, giving her a smirk. "I am not _that_ kind of pony… now, um, I do recall saying earlier if you did not follow through with- ah, _there_ we go, princess, easy as pie!"

 **Insert "** _ **Vulture Clash"**_ **from** _ **Spider-Man: Homecoming**_

Taking a moment to rub the side of her flank, Cadence glared at Beck, and exclaimed, " _There_ , and now, for the last time, give _her_ _ **back**_ _!"_

However, she was once again surprised after Beck suddenly began laughing.

" _Wow_ … I see why you have your name, princess, but I can't believe you're actually that gullible...

"I mean, did you _really_ think I'd harm a little foal like Flurry Heart?"

After hearing what he had said to her, Cadance's eyes widened in realization.

Beck didn't come to the Crystal Empire for Flurry… he came for _her_.

" _You… w-will not… I…_ "

She had no time to react on this impulse however, as the darkness began to enter her vision, and slur her speech.

As he looked down at her, Beck sighed, and he said, "You know, it's comforting to know I'm not the only one who'll do anything for family."

Cadence had no chance to reply, for she was already unconscious on the ground.

"Mama?" Flurry asked, seeing her mother _asleep_ on the floor.

"Sorry about this, sweetie," Beck said as he softly pricked a dart into the filly's flank, eliciting a cry. " _Shhhhhh_ …"

The baby alicorn's eyes began to close, and her wings were tucked in as she began to yawn.

"Good night, little one," Beck whispered as he gently placed a now-sleeping Flurry in her crib, and giving her a loving kiss in the forehead before tucking her in.

Once he did that, he turned his attention towards the unconscious Cadence, taking out his burlap sack as he said, "And as for _you_ , princess…"

* * *

The crowd around the castle was already beginning to grow restless the longer the Princess was out of their vision. It got so rowdy that some of the Guard needed to convert their efforts to crowd control.

It was organized chaos for several minutes, at least until they heard a parting message from the villain that dared to attack their home.

" _So long, suckers_!" Beck yelled into his megaphone before discarding it over the highest balcony in the castle, and it ended up landing harmlessly due to the crowd making room for the projectile.

Back on the highest castle balcony, burlap sack in mouth, and his third saddle bag ready on his back ready to deploy, Beck ran out into the balcony and jumped, much to the shock of the Crystal ponies.

However, he wasn't airborne for too long before he pulled the string he had attached to his hoof and out came a wing-like mechanism.

Just as it was designed to do, it caught the wind and carried Beck out into the distance.

The Crystal Guard was unable to follow, seeing as how the crowd had gotten so thick that getting through them would take too long.

Plus, they couldn't have guessed what was inside the sack… but what they _did_ know is that Prince Shining Armor needed to be alerted about this immediately.

* * *

 _Several miles away_

" _Coming in for a landing_ ," Beck said to himself, getting his hooves ready.

 _[Music mentioned earlier is abruptly cut off, around 2 minute mark.]_

However, like all first-time flyers, Beck ended up crashing down to the ground, rolling repeatedly until he came to rest flat on his back, with the burlap sack having been discarded from his mouth due to the fall.

Luckily, the fall had happened in a grassy meadow, otherwise Beck would have had another set of injuries to deal with.

The green-fur-colored pony got up, made sure his saddle bags were in order, which included the packaging of his glider, and check up on the unconscious Cadance.

' _Whew, she's alright. Better to have a live Princess rather than a dead or gravely injured one,_ ' Beck thought to himself before taking the sack into his mouth once more as he galloped back to the lab once more.

* * *

"I can't believe it… this is impossible…"

As he began putting the Princess of Love into her own cage, Beck let out a small chuckle, and said, "I told you all, did I not?"

"You are a horrible pony," said a frowning Luna. "How many more must you capture until your satisfactions are fulfilled?"

After doing one last check on Cadence, Beck began to re-treat some of his bruises from last night, and with a smile, he said, "Oh, there's only a few more left that will be joining us… but I have something _very_ special in mind for the pony that I plan on capturing _last_ … _heh-heh-heh… ha-ha-ha-ha… ha-ha- aaaagh, damn it!"_


	10. Far from Over

**MLP: Seeds of the Past**

 _ **Chapter 10 - Far From Over**_

 _ **Author's Note:**_ _"My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" belongs to DHX Media and Hasbro, while Stardust Balance is owned by the Warrior of Twilight... and thanks to FanficFan920 for helping me with this story!_

* * *

After adding the rest of her friends to her bulletin board, along with Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, Twilight took a few steps back while shaking her head in confusion.

"I just don't understand why this unknown pony is capturing almost everypony that I - Casey, for the last time, leave that picture alone!"

Her special somepony had been trying several times to remove Stardust from the _"suspect"_ portion after hearing Ride Along's crime report.

"You _know_ already that the pony behind this is a _light-green_ Earth Pony, Twilight… _Stardust_ is a _gold_ Earth Pony, so he isn't really a suspect anymore."

"Well, until we've saved everypony that he's captured, Stardust is staying _right there,_ " said Twilight, in a serious tone.

Knowing that he wouldn't win this one, Casey walked away from the board, and replied, "Alright, Twilight, I'm leaving him there… you think Shining Armor made it back to the Crystal Empire yet?"

An hour after Ride Along and Applebloom had left the castle, a carriage being pulled by four Crystal Pegasi had arrived at the outdoor steps, with one of them describing what had happened to his and Cadence's castle, as well as the Princess of Love herself.

" _Don't worry, Twily, I'm putting an end to this once and for all,"_ Shining had said to the young alicorn. " _You keep on figuring out why this is happening."_

Then, after making sure that Twilight was okay, Shining entered the carriage, and the quintet had immediately began their ascent.

"I really hope so," replied the Princess of Friendship, after sighing in sadness, and she continued on with her work.

As for Casey, he took another look at his friend's picture, and hoped that nothing wrong was happening to Stardust or anypony else in the former human being's world.

* * *

 _ **This is complete and total bull-[BEEP]!**_

 _ **I should not be in this wretched, horrible place… gah, if it wasn't for my infuriating other self and his meddling friend, I would have been ruler of both Anti-Equestria**_ **and** _ **the one that my counterpart lives in.**_

 _ **Instead, I've been subjected to having the same [BEEP] tea party every damn day of-**_

 _ **WHOOSH!**_

Pausing his inner monologue, Evil Stardust turned around to see that his newest "companion" had finally fixed the previously-damaged wristwatch that had belonged to Casey, and a smile appeared on his face when he also saw that a time portal had been created.

"Good thing that Kronos sent you here… otherwise, I don't think I ever would have gotten to repairing that damn thing."

"Yes, well, don't thank me yet," replied Elixir Nova, another sinister pony who had his own issues with Stardust and Casey, and he handed the watch back over to the dark-gold pony. "Save it until after we've taken control of Equestria."

Evil Stardust let out a chuckle, and began shaking his head.

"Oh, I have no intention of ruling Equestria anymore, Alexa… and I don't intend on having you accompany me on my _revenge_ journey."

Before Elixir could respond to that, the young pony delivered a swift kick to the scientist's head, and watched as he collapsed to the ground.

" _But… we made a… deal…"_

"Well, obviously, you made it with the wrong type of person," replied Evil Stardust, flashing him with a sinister grin. "Now, then, if you'll excuse me, Alexa, there are several ponies… and a dragon… that I need to take care of."

As the groggy Elixir tried to stand up, Evil Stardust walked over to the portal, which transported him to a realm that he'd wanted to travel to for a _very long_ time.

" _Honeeeeyyyy… I'm hoooo - what the... ?"_

The evil version of Stardust was surprised to see his closest friends, as well as his girlfriend, locked up inside of a cage.

"Hey, free us _after_ you've beat the livin' _[BEEP]_ outta _him_ ," exclaimed Anti-Rainbow, referring to the elderly gentleman that was standing beside Evil Stardust.

"You're not going to succeed in your plan, Jack… they will stop you."

Evil Stardust rolled his eyes, and replied, "First of all, there's not one damn single piece of that [BEEP] inside of me… I'm _all evil_ , old timer, and right now, you're about to go into retirement!"

 _ **WHOOSH!**_

Courtesy of Casey's wristwatch (which had also been upgraded by Elixir), the dark gold pony created a portal that led to the unescapable world known as dimensional limbo, and before knocking Kronos inside of it, Evil Stardust said, "Oh, and don't worry, old timer, I'll take _very_ good care of your special time staff."

Then, he fired an energy blast at him, and once Kronos was gone, he closed up the portal.

"You're welcome, Alexa… now, then…"

Rainbow's evil self rolled her eyes, and muttered, "Great, he's talkin' to himself again."

Ignoring her comments for the time being, Evil Stardust turned his attention over to the various portals that had to do with talking ponies, and he said, "Normally, I would have just gone back in time to kill my other self, but Rowan already tried that… I would need a world that… _oh_!"

An idea popped inside his mind, and the sinister pony's smile grew a little wider.

"I know _just_ how to take care of you, my worthless counterpart… and as for his _friend_ …"

Evil Stardust turned to look at another "pony portal" that Kronos had been observing, and after seeing what was inside that particular world, he added, "You're going to regret not allowing me to finish you off inside the castle when I had the chance… _but… before I do anything else…"_

Holding the staff that belonged to Kronos, Evil Stardust walked over to the cage that contained his friends, and used its energy to make the lock quickly melt away, which eventually caused the cage to open. "Wow, this staff does everything!"

"Well, we could've told you _that,_ genius," replied Anti-Rainbow, walking over to her friend. "Now, if you're done talking to yourself, I say we use that thing to take care of Stardust and Ca-"

"Just cool it for a sec, Crash," exclaimed Midnight, who was glaring at her boyfriend. "I should really lay a number on you after that stuff you pulled with Sunset."

Evil Stardust let out a sheepish chuckle, and said, "I'm sorry, love, but I was just doing whatever it took to turn Stardust's friends against him… besides, you know my heart belongs to you."

"Oh, for eff's sake, not this stuff again," growled Anti-Rainbow. "Need I remind you, Star, about two certain _ponies_ that we have to take care of? We don't have time for you two to start makin' out and whatnot!"

Evil Stardust gave a small shrug, and he smiled at Midnight, saying, "Well, with Kronos out of the way, Crash, I got _all_ the time in the… hey, what's this thing?"

He walked over to the frozen canteen that was placed on a nearby table, and Midnight was the one who gave him an answer.

"Actually, sweetheart… I have a _better_ idea… one that will, as they say, kill two ponies with one stone... but you'll have to melt that ice away first."

* * *

 _Damn, I_ _ **knew**_ _I shouldn't have left without making sure I had every single part for my flying mechanism… oh, well, it's not like-_

Panting as he ran, Beck looked up to see the Crystal Pony Carriage a few feet away, and he realized that they must have gotten a trail on him somehow.

"[BEEP] my life," he muttered. "Well, guess it's time to improvise."

Then, after pulling an about face, Beck quickly started to chase after the carriage. _Good thing I brought a little extra more darts with me!_

The cloaked pony then pulled out his grappling gun once more via his mouth, and took a shot, aiming for the carriage's rear.

To his pleasure, the hook managed to hook itself into one of the carriages axles.

' _Bingo,'_ Beck thought, beginning to pull himself up.

However, as soon as he reached the top, and grasped the carriage, the extra weight was felt by all five of the other ponies.

" _What the..._?" Shining said at the sudden weight change. The Crystal Prince took a gaze behind the carriage, only to find nothing.

" _Surprise_ ," he heard a menacing voice say.

However, before he could implant the dart into Shining Armor's flank, said pony managed to deflect the dart from his hand, sending it plummeting to the ground.

* * *

Angel Bunny was looking feverishly for food.

Ever since that cloaked pony kicked him out of his owner's cottage, he had been starving.

Finally, Angel managed to find what looked to be a grape on the ground, so he happily approached the berry only to suddenly feel pain in his rear.

The bunny screeched in pain, before immediately falling unconscious, only inches from the food he so desired. As if fate was playing a trick on Angel, another bunny took the grape not even a minute later.

* * *

"Well, that's just unfortunate," Beck remarked before pulling out another dart.

The comment was met with a solid left hook to his face, sending Beck crashing against the carriage's back.

Luckily for him, he still maintained grip on the dart.

"Alright," Beck said. "If it's a fight you want, it's a fight you'll get."

"What's going on up there, Your Highness," one of the Crystal Pegai inquired, slightly concerned.

"I've got it," he responded. "Just land this carriage _right now_."

"Yes sir." Then, a few seconds later, they began to make the descent down to the ground.

Meanwhile, behind them,Beck's attempts to dart the Crystal Prince had been in vein as Shining continued to deflect it, so he decided to discard the dart, which ended up in between the carriage cushion and the back, and he elected to go for a full-on brawl with the Prince of the Crystal Empire.

"Come on, _Crystal Prince,_ is this the best you-"

 _WHAM!_

After recieving a good punch to the face, Beck shook his head a few times, and said, "Alright… I'll give you _that_ one, Shining."

"Well, thanks, but there's plenty-"

 _WHAM!_

Beck quickly delivered a swift kick to his ribcage area, and while Shining groaned in pain, the cloaked pony let out a laugh.

"Oh, I agree, Shining… this is _far_ from over!"

* * *

 _[Stardust's World]_

After reading more of what her counterpart was telling her, Twilight let out a sigh, and began heading over to her special somepony's bedroom.

 _Knock-knock-knock!_

" _You can come in, love!"_

After opening the bedroom door, a surprised Twilight asked, "How'd you know it… never mind… you done playing that game yet?"

Eyes glued to the t.v. screen, Stardust shook his head, and replied, "Not until I got all 7 of the Chaos Emeralds, love, and level-wise, I'm still on Metal… oh, _[BEEP] you and your plasma balls, Eggman! Take some of this, then!"_

"Jack, I think that Casey and-"

Stardust shook his head, and said, "I'm sure he's fine, love, I would tell if one of my closest friends was in da - _haha,_ how does it feel bein' _[BEEP]-_ ed up by the fastest thing alive _again_?"

"Um, is the game _really_ that impor-"

Twilight's special somepony nodded his head, but still not looking away from the t.v., and he said, "Yeah, it _kind of_ _ **is**_ _, love…_ this is my freakin' _childhood_ right here! I mean, I haven't been this excited about a Sonic game since… well, okay, _Generations_ was pretty cool, but it was rather short, and they didn't even make Classic Sonic talk or whatever…"

Before Twilight asked what he was talking about, Stardust added, "Anyway, this _Mania_ game right here is… _come on, Tails, you're better than that…_ I mean, I _am_ still sour about the fact that they'll probably never make a season 3 of SatAM, but... _yes, onto the next zone_!"

The purple alicorn rolled her eyes, and said, "Jack, can you _please_ come down here to-"

"Oops! Sorry, love, it's already on the next level," exclaimed Stardust, and he continued playing the game, while Twilight was getting annoyed.

"Well, _fine,_ then I'm going to just wait _right here_ until you beat this… game… and the second it's over, you are coming with me to-"

Stardust nodded his head, and said, "The library, yeah… sure thing, love, I promise - _oh my god, that was freakin' awesome_!"

* * *

 _Meanwhile_

As she sat by one of the tables in Sugarcube Cafe, Sunset Shimmer hummed to herself while tapping her fingers on the table.

 _You'd think he would remember the time that we both set this lunch da-_

"I'm here, don't worry, I'm here… _phew_!"

The pony-turned-human teenager looked at the person who was now sitting in front of her, and said, "You know, Jack, they have these things on our phones called a _reminder_ …"

"Hey, I swear, it wasn't my fault this time," replied the young man that also happened to be her boyfriend. "But I promise I'll make it up to you… _right now,_ in fact!"

Before she could start giving him more of the _"you were late"_ treatment, Sunset suddenly smelled something _very_ delicious, and the young teenager said, "Wow, I… I almost forgot you knew how to make these."

"Eh, more fun and easier than baking a cake," said Jack, giving his girlfriend a shrug, and opened up the napkin that he'd placed on the table to reveal several home-made brownies. "Ladies first…"

 _Always the gentleman,_ thought Sunset, giving him a smile as she began to eat one of the brownies. _He must've figured he would be late if-_

" **Aw, isn't this sweet?"**

Suddenly, the two of them turned around to see a dark-yellow teenager that looked a lot like EG Stardust, and he added, "Sunset Shimmer… and the _boyfriend_!"

"Look, Stardust, if this is some weird prank or something, then I suggest-"

Evil Stardust let out a laugh, and shook his head, saying, "I can assure you, Shimmer, that it is _not_ … in fact, there's a little more to it."

 _Whoosh!_

With a sinister grin, the young pony fired an energy blast that came from his newly-obtained staff, which caused her to fly back towards the wall, crashing into a few unoccupied chairs.

However, before Evil Stardust could do anything worse, he felt a pair of hands roughly turn him around from the shoulders, and found himself looking at Sunset's boyfriend.

" _What the [BEEP] is your problem?!"_

An unimpressed Evil Stardust raised his eyebrow, and said, "Do I know you?"

Instead of allowing Jack to give him a response, the sinister pony-turned-human delivered a solid headbutt to his forehead, and a now-dazed Jack collapsed to the ground while Evil Stardust simply gave a small chuckle.

"You got guts, man, I'll give you that much… but, do yourself a favor, and stay down…"

He turned his attention over to the unconcious Sunset, and his smile began to widen up dangerously.

"It's _payback_ time, Shimmer… and I hope you-"

Suddenly, he stopped talking after hearing Jack begin to stand up, making Evil Stardust let out a groan before saying, "I told you to stay down."

"You aren't taking her _anywhere_ ," growled Jack, who was quickly becoming furious. "And if you do anything else to her-"

Evil Stardust laughed, and he replied, "You'll do what? Also, if you're trying to scare me, man, then it's not working one bit… so, like I said, _stay down_ … or else I'll use this bad boy right here to rip the flesh off her bone."

Before Jack could give a response, Evil Stardust used his own energy blast to send him crashing through the kitchen doors nearby, and after that, he put the former unicorn in his arms, bridal style.

"You're gonna pay for doing this to my eye, Sunset… but before that, there's someone who is just _dying_ to meet you… _hahahahahaha_!"

* * *

Just as the carriage was approaching the ground, in the same field Beck landed in earlier in the day, Shining finally managed to get the upper hand.

"Not this time," said Twilight's brother, who was now holding Beck's head over the edge.

"So, I see you've connected me to the other disappearances," Beck observed. "Rather impressive, I will admit..."

"Where are the others?" Shining demanded. "Where did you take my wife?!"

"Like I'd tell _you_!" Beck responded before using his back legs to do a backwards summersault/bucking motion that knocked both of them off the carriage into the ground below, which was about a good ten foot drop.

However, it didn't make the landing any more comfortable, so after the two ponies hit the ground, they both struggled to get up.

 _"Uhhhh..."_ Beck moaned as he pulled out another dart, seeing as how he'd already lost one (and another he'd left on the carriage), and managed to successfully impale it into Shining's flank, which caused him to let out a soft chuckle at his victory.

" _Freeze!"_ He heard one of the Crystal Pegai said as they approached ready for a fight.

Beck responded by quickly pulling out four darts, and using his tube, propelled them into the necks of all four Crystal Pegasi, causing them to drop to the ground.

" _Idiots_ ," Beck remarked as he shoved the now unconscious Shining Armor into his burlap sack, and then, he found himself limping back to his lair, using his mouth to help with dragging the filled-up burlap sack.

Once he arrived, the other prisoners watched as Beck placed his newest capture in the same cage that the still-knocked out Cadence was in.

"I promise ya, you're not gonna like it when Twilight finds you," exclaimed Applejack. "She ain't gonna go easy on you, either!"

Pinkie nodded her head, in agreement, and replied, " _Yeah,_ and I've seen how angry she can get… this one time, she literally _burst_ into flames!"

As he started to heal up some of his bruises, Beck let out a quick laugh, and said, "Oh, I'm not too concerned about a _fiery_ princess, Applejack… and speaking of _fire_ …"

He turned to look over at Rarity, with a smile on his face. "Care to take a gander at who's next on the _capture_ list?"

* * *

After having spent enough hours working on her bulletin board, Twilight decided to look for some more information that would help her learn more about this mysterious Earth Pony.

So, now, she and Casey, along with Spike, were following Sweetie Belle as they made their way to Carousel Boutique, but were all unaware of the fact that somepony was keeping an eye of them through a pair of high-tech goggles.

' _Heheheheheheh, your turn, Spikey-Wiley_ ,' thought Beck, who was watching from afar, and a few minutes later, he was making his way into the boutique through Rarity's window once more.

While Sweetie Belle and Casey were searching the lower story, Twilight and Spike were looking upstairs.

"Sweetie Belle said that she saw the hooded pony standing over Rarity right here," Twilight explained, standing on the spot she was referring to. "So let's try to look in the hallway. He may have dropped something on the way out."

"Got it. I'll check in Rarity's room," Spike replied.

"Alright," Twilight said, giving the young dragon her approval. "Let me know if you find anything."

As Twilight turned to inspect the hall, Spike made his way into Rarity's room.

"Alright, if I were a clue, where would I be?" Spike asked himself.

Little did the little dragon know that he was being watched.

 _ **Insert "Seizing the Spirit of Adventure" from UP**_

' _Jackpot_ ,' Beck thought to himself from the safety of Rarity's shut closet, while slowly pulling out his tube and a dart.

" _Hmmmmm_ … wonder why the window's open?" Spike wondered. "Maybe that's how he got in?"

"Very perceptive, Spike," answered Beck.

 _WHOOSH!_

"What?" Spike asked, hearing a voice before he felt a prick on his rear. " _Yeouch_!"

The young dragon looked behind him to see the same kind of dart that Sweetie Belle had showed Twilight a few days ago.

"Oh no... _TWILIGHT_! _He's here in… in the..._ " Spike managed to yell as his voice began slurring.

' _Damn it,'_ Beck thought to himself as he emerged from the closet carrying his burlap sack. _'I got to start labeling these damn things!'_

"Spike, what's wrong?!" Twilight said, running toward Rarity's room.

However, what she found shook the young alicorn to her very core. _It's him!_

 _Well, if it isn't the beloved princess herself,_ thoughtBeck, as he and Twilight stared each other down.

One was standing in the doorway to Rarity's room, and the other was standing on her windowsill with a burlap sack in mouth.

Unfortunately, just as quickly as the stare down began, it ended with Beck hopping down from Rarity's window, and dashing through the streets of Ponyville.

" _No_! You're not gonna get Spike!" Twilight yelled as she gave chase.

' _Thank Celestia he's so light_ ,' Beck thought, finally relieved about the fact that he wouldn't have to worry about dealing with any new or old bruises. ' _Pain aside, I gotta lose her somehow_.'

Unfortunately, the cloaked pony already had a mile-wide advantage over her, and by the time that Twilight rounded the corner, he was nowhere in sight, leaving the alicorn almost heartbroken.

"No, no, _nonononononono_... _**NOOOO**_!" Twilight yelled.

"Twilight!" Sweetie Belle and Casey yelled, running toward their distraught friend/special somepony. "What happened?"

" _He... he.. he got Spike_ ," Twilight said, through some freshly made tears of guilt leaking from her eyes.

"Oh no," Sweetie Belle said, in concern and sadness.

As for Casey, he gritted his teeth together in frustration, and growled, "That's it… when I get my hooves on this pony is, _he is gonna PAY_!"

* * *

 _Anti-Equestria_

After placing Sunset in her " _new home",_ Evil Stardust walked into the throne room, where the Anti-Mane 6 (except for Midnight) were waiting, with the now un-frozen canteen placed on the middle of the table.

"So, are we gonna deliver some payback to those ponies, or what?" asked Anti-Rainbow, who was not as patient as the rest of her friends

" _Not just yet_ , Crash," replied Stardust's counterpart. "Regarding what happened last time, I completely underestimated those two… and by now, my other self is probably smart and powerful enough to sense either of us approaching him or any of his friends."

While Anti-Rainbow rolled her eyes, Anti-Applejack asked, "So, what in the hay are we supposed to do until then?"

Taking a look at the time staff that was in his hooves, as well as the unfrozen canteen, Evil Stardust chuckled, and replied, "Until the time is right, my friends… let's have some _fun_."


	11. Seeds Planted, Part 1

**MLP: Seeds of the Past**

 _ **Chapter 11 - Seeds Planted, Part 1**_

 **Author's Note:** Greetings fellow readers and story writers, this is FanficFan920 :)

First of all, a special "Thank you" goes to CJ (the actual author) for allowing me to write a good portion of this story. I'm glad to be able to have a friend like him in this fandom, as well as have an opportunity to write an OC villain for him.

Oh, right, I haven't told you… yeah, Beck is actually my OC. Almost all of his actions and dialogue was written by me.

I can't wait for you guys to finally see what drives him. I put a lot of thought into this character and I'm excited to see what y'all think.

Alright, now that I have my intro out of the way, what's next? Oh, right, the disclaimer.

 _[Me] I can take it from here, buddy…_ " **My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic"** _is owned by DHX Media and Hasbro, Stardust Balance belongs to the Warrior of Twilight, and_ _yes, Beck is owned by FanficFan920. Enjoy the chapter!_

 _[Stardust] Hey, who's the new guy?_

* * *

While Casey and Twilight couldn't believe that they had been unsuccessful in rescuing Spike from the cloaked pony, Stardust was busy dealing with things that were preventing him from going to Casey's world, aside from his belief that everything there was fine.

"... for the last time, love, his actual name is Dr. Robotnik, but everyone just calls him Dr. Eggman now."

Twilight's eyes went back to her boyfriend's television screen, and she asked, "Well, why can't you just have Sonic try and talk things over with him?"

After passing by a checkpoint in the game, Stardust let out a chuckle, and replied, "This isn't that type of game, love… besides, if I just stood still, he'd attack me, thus depriving me of all the Power Rings that I collected, and if I got hit again, then it would-"

 _Knock-knock-knock-knock-knock!_

Before either of them could think about who was at the castle doors, they got their answer a few seconds later.

" _ **Twilight**_ _!"_

A concerned expression appeared on Twilight's face, and she said, "Oh, no, that doesn't sound too good."

The young alicorn quickly hurried out of Stardust's room, but before he could resume playing the video game, she returned to stand in his doorway.

"Aren't you going to come so we can figure out what's wrong?"

Stardust gave a small shrug, and replied, "I'm sure it's not that hard for you and Spike-"

"Spike's not in here, remember?" reminded Twilight. "He's outside enjoying the _Annual Snack Cart Invasion_ …"

 _Ah, yes, all of those traveling food carts,_ thought the former human. _Why does that sound familiar, though?_

"... and Pinkie's _both_ of our friends, Jack, so now that you have the hedgehog on _pause mode,_ let's go down to see why Pinkie needs help."

Not wanting to cause an argument between them, Stardust began to walk out of his room, following his girlfriend downstairs, and he said, "This better be worth spending time away from my childhood."

Once they were at the doors, Pinkie Pie suddenly barged her way inside, front limbs flailing about helplessly before landing in front of Twilight. " _Help me! The Phenomnomenoms are back!_ "

"Um… come again?" said Stardust, wondering what the pink pony was talking about.

After closing the doors behind her, an almost terrified Pinkie gave them a quick explaination.

"I've got to find a way to keep away from the food carts while _they're_ here… you know, my food nemesis-"

"The, er, _phenomnomenoms_ or whatever?" replied Stardust, and Pinkie quickly nodded, while signs of hunger appeared on her face. _What kind of [BEEP] name is that for a type of sugary treat?_

"Yup, those tasty, brain-spinning, nerve-blowing, happy-tummy morsels are the _one_ treat that my hypermetabolism cannot defeat!"

As Pinkie continued to explain more about the _nom-nom's_ Stardust was wondering why this seemed so familiar to him.

 _I could've sworn that someone told me something about this somewhere on the Internet…_

* * *

 _[Casey's World]_

"So, we're all Twilight has now?" Scootaloo asked, making sure that she had heard Sweetie Belle correctly.

After the events that occured in her sister's boutique, Sweetie Belle immediately called a CMC meeting at their clubhouse.

"Yes, that is correct," confirmed the young unicorn, gesturing towards a scroll that contained crudely drawn depictions of the ones who were missing. "The Princesses, the rest of the Elements, her parents, her childhood friends, Spike… they've all been captured, and taken Celestia knows where. The only ponies she has now are Casey and her brother-"

"No, she has us too," Scootaloo declared. "If this pony managed to capture the other Princesses, Twilight's going to need all the help she can get. Plus, he's captured ponies close to US too. I think it's fair that we get to help."

"Then it's settled," Apple Bloom decided. "We're gonna help Twilight and Casey solve this here mystery."

" _CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS DETECTIVES, YEAH!_ " the three fillies declared together before dashing out of their clubhouse to Ponyville castle.

 _##################_

 _POOF! TSSSSSSSSS!_

The Crystal Mirror crackled and popped as Casey continued to fiddle with its circuits.

"Come on, _you damn thing… work!"_ growled a frustrated Casey, also regretting that he'd lost his special watch, and ended up hitting the side of the machine in frustration.

As the device settled back down, he let out a forlorn sigh.

 _I wonder what would Stardust do in this situation… probably first say something like [BEEP] or-_

His thoughts were interrupted when he heard a knock on the door.

"Casey, are ya here?" the voice of a filly asked from the doorway.

* * *

 _Stardust's World_

"... so that's why I came here to ask for your help, Twilight, because you're the _least_ treat-tempted pony here in Ponyville," finished Pinkie. "Oh, and the same goes for you, Stardust, even though you might have the same problem with that one soda you enjoy drinking."

Stardust rolled his eyes, and he replied, "Thank you, Pinkie, but I don't have a _problem_ when it comes to drinking a bottle of _Coca-Cola_ every now and then-"

"What about that one time when you came back from Casey's world with a whole bunch of them?"

The gold pony shook his head, saying, "Those were a party gift from that world's version of you, Pinkie… now, if you'll excuse me, there's two more chaos emeralds that I-"

 _Poof!_

Suddenly, Twilight stood in front of Stardust before he could reach the stairs, and said, "Jack, we are _helping_ Pinkie Pie… the blue hedgehog can wait."

Stardust turned back to look at Pinkie's pleading facial expression, and after letting out a sigh, he replied, "Alright, fine… so how _exactly_ are we going to help her?"

"That's a good question," wondered the young alicorn. "Maybe some form of aversion therapy?"

 _###############_

A few minutes later, Pinkie - now wearing a wetsuit - was standing in a swimming pool that was filled up with ice-cold water, and she had one end of a rubber band in her muzzle while the other end was wrapped around her hoof.

"Well, this is _something_ ," muttered Stardust. "How is this going to help her, love?"

Twilight, who was now wearing a white lab coat, replied, "In order to desensitize her to the phenom-"

"The treat with a ridiculously long name…"

"-nomenons, we are putting Pinkie through a series of excercises to make her feel so uncomfortable that she'll associate the target habit… in this case, eating phenom - _you know what I mean…_ with discomfort or disgust."

Nodding his head, Stardust looked at Pinkie, and he said, "Alright, so… I guess… whenever you find yourself thinking about the _special treat_ , let go of the rubber band so that the pain will bring you out of whatever trance you might be in."

"Exactly," replied Twilight, now smiling while using her magic to create images of the sugary treat, and placing them above her friend's head. "That sting and the cold are temporary sensations that will help you make a permanent change!"

Pinkie looked up at the images, and she quickly found herself drooling hungrily over them.

" _Mmmmmm… phenom_ _ **(snap) -**_ _ow!"_

Then, after the young pony put the end of the rubber band back in her muzzle, she tried again…

 _ **Snap! Snap! Snap!**_

"Is it working?" wondered a hopeful Twilight.

Pinkie, whose eyes were like those of someone being hypnotized, found herself drooling over the thought of eating the special treat, and then, she cried, " _Mmmmmmm…. I'm…_ _ **hungry**_ _!"_

 _WHOOSH!_

As fast as a torpedo, the young pony flew straight out of the pool, and was out of the castle faster than Twilight could cry out, " _Pinkie!"_

" _Yeah… I don't think that worked,_ " said Stardust, who then started to follow after the Princess of Friendship as they both went after Pinkie.

* * *

 _[Casey's World]_

"Thanks for coming, you three," Casey thanked as the quartet made their way through the castle's long and winding halls. "Twilight hasn't come out of that room since we got back from the boutique. She hasn't even let _me_ in."

"Are you two fightin' or something?" asked Applebloom, and her fellow CMCs looked at her, with the little pony giving them all a sheepish expression. "Oh, _right… sorry_."

"Don't worry, Casey," Sweetie Belle said, after rolling her eyes at Applejack's sister. "The Cutie Mark Crusaders-"

"- are here to help," finished a wide-smiling Scootaloo.

Casey smiled at the fillies' passion, and he replied, "I'm sure she'll appreciate that very much."

Once they had reached the young alicorn's room, Casey's knock brought her attention away from the fact that she had been crying into her pillow.

"I told you to leave me alone!" she yelled.

"You have visitors," informed the light orange Earth Pony. "Three, in fact..."

"Well, tell them to go away," exclaimed an upset Twilight.

" _Twilight, it's us. Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo_ ," the youngest of the Apple family said, and this managed to get Twilight to at least turn her attention towards her bedroom door, mentally sighing in exasperation.

She knew she couldn't turn them away, they were only fillies. "Alright, you can come in."

The door creaked open as the crusaders made their way in.

Just as Casey was about to enter himself, he heard a loud knock on the castle door.

"You three go on in. I need to take this," he excused himself as he went to see who it was.

"We just came to check up on ya, Twilight," Apple Bloom explained as the door shut, significantly darkening the room.

"Yeah, and to help you catch that no good pony that's been taking everyone - _OW_ ," Scootaloo exclaimed as Sweetie Belle hit her side with her hoof.

"What she _means is,_ we just wanted to see how you were holding up and if there's anything we could do," Sweetie Belle explained, and Twilight began to feel slightly better at the display.

They all just wanted to help, just like…

 _Spike,_ thought the purple alicorn, who began to whimper once more.

" _Now look what ya did_ ," cried Apple Bloom, scolding Scootaloo.

"What _I_ did?" Scootaloo said, taken aback.

"Yeah, have you no tact?" Sweetie Belle said, taking the side of Apple Bloom.

" _Girls, girls, please,_ " Twilight whimpered again. "It's not your fault. I just miss…" The alicorn couldn't even say the dragon's name, she went back to crying into her pillow.

' _Why couldn't I have been there_?' She thought to herself.

The CMC immediately ceased their arguing and looked to the princess in concern, never had they seen anypony so upset before.

They knew what they needed to do.

Twilight's eyes widened as she felt three small weights on her back. She looked to find that the Crusaders had climbed onto her bed and laid themselves out on Twilight's back, all three rubbing it soothingly with one hoof.

" _There, there,_ Twilight," Sweetie Belle said.

"I miss them too," Apple Bloom consoled.

"But we can't stay in here and mope," Scootaloo said, attempting to motivate her. "We have to find them... and I'm positive we will!"

' _They're right_ ,' Twilight thought. ' _And… I still have Casey… so that means we can find them… together_.'

The Princess of Friendship whimpered again, only this time, it was with tears of pride, and she managed to prop herself up so that the CMC could make their way back to the floor.

"Thank you, fillies," the purple alicorn thanked.

"It's the least we could do," Scootaloo replied, a bright smile appearing on her face.

Suddenly, a knock was heard from the door, and they heard Casey's voice cry out, " _Mares, you need to see this!"_

 _###############_

' _Oh, come on!'_ Sweetie Belle said mentally as one of the four crystal pegasuses that was transporting Shining Armor back to the Crystal Empire explained what had happened.

"All we found when we came too was this dart he must have lost in the scuffle," one of them said, presenting it to Casey while the CMC were ready to comfort Twilight who was dangerously close to losing it again.

"Thank you," Casey thanked as he inspected the dart, which Sweetie Belle recognized as the one she had given to Twilight. "We'll let you know what we find."

The crystal pegasuses nodded in acknowledgement and Casey turned to look at his special somepony.

"I'm sorry about… what's been happening, Twilight, but don't worry… because now that we have _this_ ," said Casey as he gestured to the dart. "We'll find where Spike, Shining, and everyone else are, then we'll take that son of a _[BEEP]_ out."

"Casey, language. There are fillies present," Twilight scolded, and also wishing that he'd never fused with Stardust. "But thank you."

"Alright, let's go solve us a mystery!" Scootaloo declared.

* * *

 _[Stardust's World]_

" _ **Yes!"**_

With the cart of _nom-nom's_ in her sight, Pinkie had her muzzle open wide, but just as she was about to consume several of the tasty treats, the pink pony found herself caught in a safety harness.

"Huh, that's funny," said Pinkie. "I don't remember ordering this, but considering the eating I'm about to do, it might be a very good idea, so I… oh, _hi, Stardust_!"

The former human being gave her a small wave, and he looked over at Twilight, saying, "Let's take her back now, love."

" _Go back?! No-no-no-no-no-no…"_ exclaimed Pinkie, who was being pulled towards them. " _Nom noms! Must… eat… nom noms!"_

Twilight shook her head, and replied, " _No_ , Pinkie, we are going to help you no matter what… and you'll thank me for doing this later."

 _A few minutes later_

" _Thanks, Twilight!"_ cried Pinkie, now sitting in her Cutie-Mark throne, and she pointed up at the trio of words that were above them. "Hey, look at that… I am thanking you later, after all!"

While Stardust wondered what his friend was talking about, Twilight looked over her list of possible ideas to provide help for Pinkie.

"I think… we need a simpler, more straightforward approach."

 _Whoosh!_

Using her magic, Twilight placed locks and chains all around the doors and windows, and she said, "We'll just keep you locked inside until the snack carts are gone! You can't overdo it on the phenomnomenons if you can't even get to them!"

Stardust was about to resume playing his video game, but his bedroom door was bolted shut, as well.

" _Ugh,_ the things I do for my best friends…"

 _Don't you want to help Miss Pie with her dilemna?_

Hearing the voice of his friend-and-mentor, Stardust replied, "Yes, but if she wants to stop eating the _nom-noms_ , then all that Pinkie needs to do is-"

 _Thud! Wham! Thud! Wham!_

"That would be her bouncing around the castle," muttered Stardust, who was now back to where he'd been earlier, and his eyes went a little wide at the sight of Twilight using her magic to engulf Pinkie's entire body, thus preventing her from escaping.

" _Let me go, Twilight, please let me go!"_ exclaimed Pinkie. " _I just want a little snack before dinner!"_

" _ **No!"**_ cried Twilight, while Stardust continued to watch. " _You asked for help, Pinkie, and by Celestia, you are getting what you asked for!"_

" _Then, why can't I taste any nom noms, huh?!"_

Ignoring her, for the moment, Twilight began to pace back and forth. "What we have here is a dilemna…"

 _Told you._

Stardust just mumbled some words underneath his breath, and said, "Not to mention a significant amount of kinetic energy to contain."

" _I'm so hungry!"_ whined Pinkie, whose mane and tail were now flat instead of its usual _puffy_ style. " _Stardust, you know how I feel, right? Help me out here!"_

"We _are,_ Pinkie," replied Stardust, letting out a sigh. "Is that not why you came to us in the first place?"

Pinkie just closed her eyes, and cried, _"I… want… noms!"_

Before Stardust could say anything else, Twilight gave her an optomistic statement. "You _say_ that you want them, but in reality, you want to be free of their power over you! Right?"

" _No… what I really,_ _ **really**_ _want is a box of those special and delicious treats,"_ replied Pinkie, giving her a hopeful smile. _"So just let me go, please… haha… turns out I don't actually want to avoid them after all!"_

Stardust shook his head, and said, "Pinkie, we weren't born yesterday-"

" _Well, duh, of course not, silly! Yesterday was when I caught you after Kronos sent you through the ceiling of Princess Celestia's castle."_

Ignoring the urge to roll his eyes, Stardust added, "It means that we aren't dumb, Pinkie, and this is not over until you admit that you're over the pheno - special treats."

"Jack is right, Pinkie," replied Twilight. "Besides, no one should face their problems alone. We all need our _friends_ to help us stay _strong_!"

After hearing the young princess say that, Pinkie's eyes started to turn red, and she huffed angrily before saying, " _I'm not exactly feeling_ _ **friendly**_ _right now, Twilight!"_

As the two of them continued arguing, Stardust found himself starting to wonder what was it about the _nom-nom's_ that was making Pinkie act this way, so he decided to go and find out for himself…

… which was by going to where all of the food carts were at, and to his amusement, Spike was sitting by a cart that had jeweled pretzels.

"Oh, hey there, Star, how's it going?"

Stardust chuckled, and he said, "Just… felt like checking this _invasion_ out. I see that you enjoy it greatly."

The little dragon happily nodded his head, and Stardust walked away to head over towards the cart that had Pinkie's special treat.

* * *

 _Two days later, in Casey's world_

 _ **[AN: Time works differently in between the two worlds, in case you were confused…]**_

I just don't get it," a frustrated Twilight said as she sifted through purchase records. "I analyzed the substance in the dart perfectly, yet there isn't any record of any of the suspects buying all of them."

As for the CMC's, they were inspecting Twilight's bulletin board.

Photos of Spike and Shining Armor were added to the "Missing" portion, while some excerpts of purchase records were connected by tack and string to the photos of the respective suspect that bought them.

"Maybe he made some of the ingredients himself?" Apple Bloom suggested.

Twilight's eyes widened in realization. "That's it! The only reason why there isn't any one pony that bought all this stuff together is becasuse he grew either one of, or all of the materials himself! Brilliant deduction, Apple Bloom."

"In fact, I can't help but notice a connection…" Sweetie Belle said, a contemplating hoof on her chin.

"What's that?" Twilight asked, already knowing what Sweetie Belle was going to say, but decided to play along.

" _(as Rarity) Elementary, my dear Twilight… (in regular voice)_ These missing ponies all have some connection to you. Your family, your friends, and your idols," explained Sweetie Belle. "And considering how they were ALL captured, it'd be safe to assume that the perpetrator is targeting you specifically through the ones you care about."

"You're right," Twillight confirmed. "I just don't know why, though."

"Let's focus on the ' _where_ ' before we get to the ' _why_ '," Casey remarked as he arrived in from tinkering with the Crystal Mirror some more. "Also, um… the Crystal Mirror's still busted."

Twilight sent Casey a sarcastic _thank you_ look, and he gave an apologetic shrug.

"So, since this pony managed to produce all, or some, of these plants and herbs, that would mean he'd have to be some kind of plant expert," Scootaloo surmised, and this fact managed to reduce the suspect board by a considerable margin.

All five ponies were now searching through purchase records of the 10-something suspects that remined, including Stardust, much to Casey's chagrin.

"Wait a minute, we know our perp is able to make the substance himself, but what about the darts?" Casey postulated. "He'd need some way to transport this knockout stuff, and since his talent, or knowledge, specializes in plants, then he'd need to purchase the darts."

"That is… _brilliant!_ Casey, you're a _genius_ ," Twilight praised, planting a kiss on the stallion's cheek, causing him to blush a little bit.

" _Eww! Blegh! Yuck_!" the CMC reviled in disgust at the display of affection.

"Oh _please_ , in a few years from now, you'll want to do that to somepony too," Casey teased.

While Twilight began to conduct an analysis of the dart, Casey and the CMC continued to search through purchase records, now looking for both ingredients of the knockout substance and any type of dart.

After a few hours of research, the five ponies managed to find what they were looking for.

"I think I found what we're looking for!" Sweetie Belle said, holding up a receipt. "It says that Beck bought a large amount of darts in bulk in town a few weeks ago."

Beck's picture on the "Suspects" portion was surrounded by other receipts that showed he had bought the seeds of a few of the various ingredients in the substance found in the dart.

"I remember him! He's that gardener pony I always see at the market whenever I go there to help my family," Apple Bloom pointed out.

"It makes sense," Twilight said. "His business is small enough to where the purchase of these seeds wouldn't cause any alarms, and combined with the fact that he bought as many darts as he did…. he might be our stallion. Sorry about accusing Stardust, Casey."

"It's okay, you were just acknowledging all possibilities, as stupid as some of those possibilities were," Casey snarked. "But I'm glad I can finally take him away from-"

"It says here he lives in the outskirts of town, come on!" Sweetie Belle said as the four of them ran as fast as they could to Beck's house, with Twilight pulling Casey along with them before he could touch the bulletin board.

* * *

 _[Stardust's World]_

"You ever try this thing before, Starswirl?"

Before he could get an answer from him, Stardust heard the faint sound of an explosion that sounded like it came from Twilight's castle, and he said, "In 3… 2… 1…"

" _No, Pinkie, you'll hate yourself in the mor - Jack?"_ exclaimed Twilight, who had not expected to see him by the food cart. "Why are _you_ here?"

"Just wanted to see for myself why Pinkie enjoys this so much," replied Stardust, who then handed the treat over to her. "But I'm over it now, so you give it a try, love."

While Pinkie was busy scarfing down multiple _nom-nom's,_ Twilight carefully placed it in her own muzzle, and she began to consume it.

"So… how is it?" wondered Stardust, who then became surprised to see her eyes be almost as wide as Pinkie's own.

" _This is… this is incredible!"_ said Twilight, and Stardust watched as she stood by Pinkie, with the two of them eating the treats together.

Then, to his amusement, they had eventually reached their limit (for the moment), and while Pinkie was whimpering in pain and sadness, he walked over to stand by Twilight.

"Well, one… _that_ happened… and second, are you alright?"

She gave a small shrug, and replied, "I don't know what to do anymore… I've tried everything that I could possibly do in order to help Pinkie _not_ eat the _nom-nom_ treats, but _nothing_ seems to work!"

The young Earth Pony looked over at his fourth-wall-breaking friend, and then, it took a moment for the answer to appear in his mind.

"Actually, love, I have an idea…"

* * *

 _[Casey's World]_

"That's just crazy talk, Rainbow," exclaimed Applejack, frowning at her friend whose body color was now a bright pink instead of its usual blue. "How in the hay do you expect us all to escape?"

The young pegasus rolled her eyes, and she said, "Like _this_ , AJ…"

 _Wham!_

To everyone's surprise, Rainbow delivered a head-butt to the front of her cage, and they watched as it quickly fell down to the ground.

" _You couldn't have done that earlier?"_ questioned Rarity.

"Had to wait till the time was right," replied Rainbow. "I noticed that the bars were weak sometime after Beck had fired his weapon at me, so-"

"Um, not that your story isn't _fascinating_ ," interrupted Discord, to her chagrin. "But I think it'd be better if you could find a way to release _all_ of us before-"

" _Well, what do we have here?"_

Rainbow turned around, and found herself looking at Beck, who was almost fully recovered after having spending some required time to rest and nurse his bruises.

"Before exactly _that_ happens," muttered the draconequs, letting out a sigh of disappointment.

Ignoring what he was saying, Beck glared at Rainbow, and asked, "How in Equestria did you get out of your cage?"

"Who _cares_ how I got out?" replied Rainbow, also glaring at her enemy. "All that matters now is stopping you right now, and freeing everyone else before-"

To her surprise, Beck suddenly started to laugh, and replied, "Oh, I don't think you are going anywhere, _Pinky Dash_ … in fact, if I were you, I wouldn't move very much at all."

"What are you-" She started to say, but then, Beck whistled an unfamiliar tune, and a trap door quickly appeared underneath her, causing Rainbow to fall into whatever was underneath. " _Aaaaaggghhhh!"_

Then, once the door closed, everyone looked over at Beck, and Minuette asked, "Did you… _know_ that would happen?"

"Eh, more or less," answered Beck. "I think it's obvious that I wasn't born yesterday… now, then, anyone _else_ care to join her?"

None of the other prisoners gave a response, at first, but then, Spike (who, unsurprisingly, was locked up in a cage near Rarity) said, "Well, _we all_ think it's obvious that, before you know it, Twilight and Casey are going to show up, and then, you'll be sorry that-"

" _Hahahahaha, I-I'm sorry, but who the heck is Casey?"_ wondered Beck. "What sort of stuff has _he_ ever done?"

Before the young dragon could answer him, Beck rolled his eyes, and said, "Yeah, I thought so… he's not important… but I don't mind locking him up, either, if he _gets in_ _ **my way**_ _."_

His voice lowered near the end of his sentence, which made Spike back away from the front of his cage, and Beck continued to laugh as he left the room.

* * *

 _A few minutes later_

" _Whew_ ," said Beck, who sighed in relief as he plopped down on his couch.

' _That was a close one_ ,' he thought to himself.

However, he had no time to revel in his victory, for he heard a " _knock, knock, knock_ " coming from his door.

"Beck, open up! We need to talk!" Twilight yelled.

' _Shit_!' Beck thought, who now knew that he had to move fast. ' _That damn dragon was right_!'

 _###############_

After several more knocks, Twilight, Casey, and the CMC's had decided that enough was enough.

"Alright, that's it… time to _bust_ our way in," Scootaloo said.

Just as she was about to back up to do just that, however, Twilight stopped her. " _Wait_ , you three. I don't think you should go with Casey and I."

" _What? Why not?"_ the CMC said, all together in disappointment.

"We don't know what might be in there," Twilight explained. "It could be dangerous."

"Well then, what are we supposed to do?" Scootaloo asked,who had been imagining how she would try to save Rainbow Dash.

Twilight took a second to think, but Casey beat her to it.

"You three wait here. If we don't come out after fifteen minutes, then that means we were probably captured, and you need to go get backup. Think you can do that?"

The Crusaders looked at each other in contemplation.

"Okay, Twilight and Casey, we'll do it," Apple Bloom said, nodding her head.

"Good luck in there," Sweetie Belle added.

" _Thanks, you three_ … _for everything,_ " Twilight said, with a smile on her face while Casey managed to force the door open by (what else) ramming into it.

"No problem, Twilight," Scootaloo replied. "Go get him, you two!"

"Oh, don't worry, he'll get what's coming to him," Casey said, in a dark and lower tone, which was only noticed by Twilight, but only for a moment.

The dup made their way inside, shutting the door once they did, and the CMC's all looked at each other.

"You thinkin', what I'm thinkin'?" Apple Bloom asked, and the other two crusaders nodded in affirmation, with all three then screaming out into the heavens.

 _"CUTIE MARK CRUSDERS LOOKOUTS, YEAH!"_

* * *

Meanwhile, inside of Beck's house, Twilight and Casey fondly rolled their eyes at the CMC's outburst.

"Anypony home?" Twilight asked, looking around several times, but no reply came.

The abode didn't have any lights on, leaving the only source of light to be Celestia's sun, and even then, it wasn't able to illuminate all that much.

The duo stepped lively on the wooden floor of Beck's home, searching for anything out of the ordinary.

' _Come on, where could he be hiding them_?' Twilight thought to herself. She found her answer when she stepped down, and instead of feeling her hoof rest on solid floor, she felt the wood curve slightly under the weight.

"Casey," Twilight said, in a low voice, letting out a tiny gasp of surprise.

" _What_?" he whispered back, and Twilight gestured to the floor below her.

Knowing exactly what she was thinking, Casey stepped toward Twilight, who removed her hoof from the floor.

The earth pony managed to get his hoof between the wall the floor bordered against, and the floor and pulled up, which resulted in the door to Beck's lab opening right up.

Casey and Twilight looked at each other triumphantly, and she said, "Let's do this!"

 _############_

The walk down the spiral stairs to Beck's lair was filled with paranoia and determination.

'It can't be this easy,' Twilight thought, but when the duo had finally reached Beck's lab, all of her worries had gone away in a flash.

" _Everyone_!" Twilight said, relieved to see that they were all safe and sound.

However, to her surprise, none of them looked relieved to see _her_ … in fact, they seemed to look even more frightened.

"No, Twily, Casey! Get out of here!" Shining yelled.

 _Whoosh!_

"It's a trap!" yelled Rarity, and Casey was about to respond when he felt a sharp prick in his flank.

"Behind you!" Moondancer yelled, and that was because Beck had been standing a few feet away, hiding himself in the shadows.

 _I've waited a long time for this,_ thought Beck, who was now looking at the targeted flank of his final prisoner while preparing his dart gun. _Light's out, princess!_

 _Whoosh!_

"I'm gonna _kill… that… bastard_ … " Casey said as the darkness permeated his vision.

"No... no... you… can't..." Twilight pleaded as she fell to the cold, hard ground. " _You won't get… get away with this."_

"Oh, I already have," Beck said menacingly. "And also, allow me the honor, oh Princess of _Friendship… to your worst nightmare_."

The last thing Twilight heard before going compeltly unconscious was Beck's evil chuckle, overlaying her friend's screams of panic.


	12. Intermission

**MLP: Seeds of the Past**

 _ **Chapter 12:**_ _Intermission_

 _Author's Note - "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" belongs to Hasbro and DHX Media, while Stardust Balance belongs to the Warrior of Twilight._

* * *

" _... so what happened next?"_

Continuing to look down at the bar table that he was sitting at, Casey answered, "I don't really like to, um, remember it."

The elderly bartender was about to give a response, but he became curious after seeing the young teenager retrieve a tiny pill that came out of his wristwatch.

Then, Casey dropped it into his 10th glass of water, and the pill quickly dissolved, with the clear liquid changing into a dark-blue color.

"Is that why you've been drinking those?" said the bartender. "To forget?"

"Yup," replied Casey, nodding his head with a saddened expression, and he began to consume his glass of _flavored water_. "Well, only _some_ memories, to be precise… the rest are ones that I don't want to forget."

The bartender let out a chuckle, and he replied, "Well, for a youngster like yourself who's been talking for almost 4 hours now, there's a _lot_ of stuff you don't want to forget."

Casey simply gave a small shrug before setting down his now-empty glass, and mumbled some words underneath his breath before looking up at the bartender. "Can I have a refill, please?"

"Sure thing, son," he replied, and took the glass on his way over to the water jug machine while Casey quietly looked at his necklace's charm.

"You haven't told her yet, huh?"

The young teeanger turned around, and found himself looking at a man that appeared to a few years older than he was.

 _I feel like I've seen him somewhere else before._

"The alicorn princess… Twilight… your _girlfriend_ ," said the young adult, and Casey gave him a slight smirk before giving a response.

" _Was_ my girlfriend… she and I are, um… we're taking a break… and, no, I never told her."

The young adult had an apologetic look on his face as he said, "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know… I didn't spoil anything for our bartender friend, did I?"

"Not really, but I think it's easy to tell since I'm here," replied Casey. "So you were listening, too?"

"Eh, I started to around the point your friend named, um, _Stardust_ showed up with that thing around your neck," said the young man, who was referring to Casey's necklace.

Once he heard the name of his friend, Casey let out a sarcastic laugh, and replied, "He's not my friend anymore… or, at least, I thought he was."

"Why? What happened between-"

For a moment, a scowl appeared on Casey's face, and he exclaimed, "I haven't gone there yet!"

Then, realizing that he'd gotten upset, Casey gave the young man an apology. "Sorry, it's just that… I'm not doing too hot in that department."

 _I don't even_ _ **have**_ _friends anymore._

"Well, you _did_ sacrifice yourself in order for him to be happy," reminded the young man, trying to be optomistic. "And he's done… uh… well, whatever you said in your story."

A tiny smile appeared on Casey's face, and he said, "Well, thanks for listening, sir… also, what's your name again?"

Before the young man could answer him, the elderly bartender returned with another glass of water, and set it down in front of Casey.

"So, does that mean you're done telling the story?"

As he began to prepare his drink, Casey shook his head, and said, "Sorry, I just… needed a quick break… not exactly fond of the stuff that happens next."

The bartender gave a shrug, and replied, "Not many people in here, son, so I got plenty of time."

He looked over to his other customer, and asked, "You got a story too?"

"Yeah, but mine can wait," he said, making a gesture towards Casey. "His is more important, at the moment… but you mind gettin' me another Co - _thank you_ , Johnny!"

"No problem, Wright," replied the bartender, after giving the young man another soda pop bottle, and he looked back at Casey. "Whenever you're ready, son."

After taking a quick drink, the pony-turned-teenager let out a sigh, and said, "So, yeah, once I got hit by the dart, everything went black…"


	13. Seeds Planted, Part 2

**MLP: Seeds of the Past**

 _ **Chapter 13: Seeds Planted, Part 2**_

 _ **Author's Note:**_ Greetings Fellow Readers and Writers! FanficFan920, the creator of Beck, here... again. This time, I'm telling you a little story. Back when I created Beck, I wrote an exchange between him and Twilight where Beck gives all the reasons he hates Twilight. I'm here to say that that scene has arrived. However, I think's fair that I warn you that the chapter you are about to read MAY contain dark or slightly graphic material. But don't worry, I balance it out with feels.

But seriously, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

That's all from me, back to you, CJ.

 _ **[Me] Also, I apologize for any OOC moments that you see in this chapter.**_

 _ **Oh, and Hasbro is the rightful owner of "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" while Stardust Balance belongs to the Warrior of Twilight.**_

 _ **Also, this will be one of those rare times when a chapter of my story is**_ _ **really**_ _ **long, so don't expect the ones after to be like this...**_

 _[Stardust] New Guy just_ _ **had**_ _to use that word, huh?_

* * *

As Pinkie Pie continued to eat a great deal of the _nom-noms_ , she found herself stopping after hearing Twilight say a sentence that she never expected one of her best friends to say.

" _I give up, Pinkie… I've failed you… I'm sorry."_

The pink unicorn looked at the young alicorn, and gasped loudly as she quickly went over to her.

" _Huh?! Twilight Sparkle giving up? No, no, no, that isn't something a pony like you would ever say…"_

Twilight sighed in sadness, and replied, "I know it's not good to hear, Pinkie, but - _oompphh!_ "

Suddenly, she felt her friend's front hoofs on her own face, and as Pinkie began squeezing her facial cheeks together, the pink pony asked, "Are you sure you're okay, Twilight? Why would you say that you-"

"Um… Pinkie?" interrupted Stardust, who was trying his best not to laugh at the way his girlfriend's face looked right now. "Please don't pop her."

"Oh, _right_ , sorry," replied Pinkie, and she moved her hoofs away from Twilight's face, which was now a little sore.

"But how in Equestria could you have possibly failed me? I've never taken a test before in my life, let alone enter a class room."

Twilight shook her head, and replied, "That's not what I was referring to… it's the fact that I haven't stopped you from eating the nom-noms… and what's worse is the fact that _Jack's_ starting to eat them now, too!"

Pinkie turned her attention over to Stardust, who had just finished eating one of the sugary treats, and she asked, "Do you feel like eating _lots and lots and_ _ **lots**_ of them now, Star, like me?"

To her surprise, Stardust shrugged his shoulders, and replied, "Eh, not really… it was delicious, I admit, but it's not something I would find myself drooling after."

Pinkie's muzzle almost dropped to the ground after hearing that. "How can you not _want_ to eat more of these? Sure, they aren't the soda bottles you drink, and yes, you probably don't want to drink those _all the time_ , but I still-"

"Well, there's your answer right there, Pinkie," said Stardust, which made her feel even more confused.

" _Huh_?"

Twilight, who was no longer pretending to be sad, gave her friend a better explanation.

"Like you said, he doesn't always want to drink those sodas _all the time_ -"

"Well, I wouldn't really mind… sorry, love, continue," said Stardust, after Twilight had given him a look that meant _not helping_.

Looking back and forth between the two ponies, Pinkie said, " _Wait a minute_ … if the nom-noms are to me like the sodas are to _him_ … and Stardust just said that he doesn't want to drink them all the time… does that mean _I_ don't _have_ to eat the nom-noms all the time?"

Stardust nodded his head, and replied, "Yup, and that's because the only per - pony who can stop you from eating these treats is yourself. Not me, not Twilight… _you_ , Pinkie."

As the pink pony realized what they were saying to her, Twilight added, "All _you_ have to do is _not_ eat them."

" _Not_ eat the nom-noms?" said Pinkie, once again looking very agitated. "So, you two are saying that I don't _have_ to snack on the most amazing, most mouth-tingling, most _astoundingly-awesome snack in the history of snack-kind? Is that what you just told me, Twilight Sparkle?_ "

 _POOF!_

" _Uh-huh,"_ replied Twilight, using her magic to teleport herself behind Stardust, who had an amused expression on his face.

As for Pinkie, who was walking back over to the cart, she took one close look at the delicious snack, and began to poke it several times.

 _What is she doing?_ thought Stardust.

" _I don't know,"_ whispered Twilight, and the gold pony gave her a look. " _Sorry, I thought you were asking me-"_

" _Oh, Twilight…"_ sang Pinkie, now bouncing her way towards the now-nervous alicorn.

" _Yes, Pinkie - oof!"_ said Twilight, who was cut off because she was now being hugged by her friend.

" _Thank you! Now I don't feel like eating the nom-noms anymore cause I know now that I don't have to eat them just like you don't always have to read books everyday, or Stardust not having to drink soda every day!"_

Before Twilight could respond to that, Pinkie gave her a suspicious look. "You may be one of my bestest, funnest, awesome-est friends, but some friends could have done it without the locks and chains… I worry about you, Twilight."

As Twilight let out a sheepish chuckle, Pinkie went over to Stardust, and gave him a hoof-shake. "Don't think I forgot about thanking _you_ , Stardust!"

 _KZZZZZZT!_

"Joy Buzzer!" squealed a happy Pinkie. "A true classic never goes out of style!"

While Twilight found herself laughing quietly, a now messy-looking Stardust said, " _Right, then..._ if we're all done here, I have an evil doctor to take care of, so…"

 _Whoosh!_

Once her special somepony was gone, Twilight let out a sigh in sadness, and Pinkie asked, "What's wrong now? Did I shock him too much?"

"No, it's about Casey," replied the young alicorn. "I'm starting to feel worried about him and our versions of us from that world."

Trying to sound comforting, Pinkie placed a hoof around her, and said, "I'm sure they're all fine, Twilight… it's like you said in your voice-over thing for our movie trailer. What could possibly go wrong over there?"

Twilight nodded her head, but then, she became confused, and asked, "Wait, what did you say?"

"Hmmm? Oh, that nothing could possibly be wrong over there," replied Pinkie. "I mean, everything _is_ fine here, so why can't it be the same for their world?"

* * *

 _[Casey's World]_

Unlike the rest of Beck's prisoners, who had woken from their dart-induced slumbers naturally, Twilight and Casey were brought back into the realm of consciousness another way.

The Princess of Friendship and her special somepony convulsed in pain and screamed in agony as she felt the electricity course through her veins. " _AHHHHHHH_!"

" _Wakey wakey, Twily_ ," said a cloak-free Beck, lowering his hooves, as well as being the source of the electricity, and a victorious smirk adorning his muzzle while the purple alicorn began breathing heavily.

The first thing Twilight noticed, was that, unlike the rest of the captured ponies, including Casey, she was not in a cage, rather she seemed to be strapped to a table of some kind. The second thing was that there was some kind of device on her horn. She attempted to try some kind of spell, in an attempt to get herself free, but all she got was a whole lot of nothing.

"Don't even bother with trying to magic yourself outta here," Beck said. "Believe me, some of them..." he gestured to some of Twilight's friends behind him, "...have already tried."

"You're lucky, then, cause otherwise, I would have taken care of you easily," growled Discord.

Considering that magic wasn't an option, Twilight saw no other course of action than to attempt to remove her restraints by force. She began to struggle mightily on the ropes that tied her wings, as well as the rest of her body, up.

"Now, now, now, there's no need to be so resistant, Princess," Beck said. "I just want to talk."

But Twilight paid him no mind, with all of her focus being put on escaping in order to save everyone.

"Alright, you asked for it," Beck resigned, walking towards Twilight and shocking everypony by raising one of his hooves to deliver a fierce slap to the Princess of Friendship, right upside the head.

"Listen to me, _DAMMNIT_!" Beck yelled in her face.

"Alright, that's it, you're dead, Beck!" Casey shouted, pulling on his cage's bars in furious anger at the sight of his special somepony being harmed.

Starlight was about to tell him something, but Beck flashed a dangerous look at the light-orange pony, and yelled, " _SILENCE_ … or else you'll be joining Rainbow Dash!"

His commanding (as well as intimidating) voice brought silence to the entire lair.

Then, Beck turned back to Twilight, and took a deep breath in order to calm himself.

"You know, Princess," Beck began. "I have to say I'm slightly disappointed. It was just so... _EASY_ … to get all of you here."

He then made a slight gesture towards Starlight, and added, "Not even your beloved pupil put up much of a fight… granted, she _was_ reading-"

"Why are you doing this?!" Twilight yelled, causing him to look at her with a deadpan expression.

"Pardon?"

" _What_ do you _want_?!" she rephrased.

"Justice, Princess," growled Beck. "What I want is justice."

Pinkie suddenly shook her head, and cried, "Don't listen to him Twilight. I can smell crazy on that stallion from a mile away… even though he's only a few feet away, but you get my warning!"

"Can it, Pinkie," exclaimed Beck. "Or else I'm putting you back to sleep!"

"Hey, you leave my friend alone," Twilight hissed. "And that isn't what I meant… what did I ever _do_ to you?"

To her surprise, Beck's anger went away momentarily, and he simply looked down at his hooves.

"Oh, you did an _awful lot_ , Princess," he said solemnly. Beck then trotted over to a desk where his audio device rested.

He took it into his mouth, and walked back over to the restrained Twilight. He placed the device in front of her, turned the volume up to its maximum level, and pressed play.

 _"Hi, Honey. I hope you're doing okay. I just wanted to let you know I put Carl down. You should have seen his little face. I just wanted to let you know to be quiet when you get home. I love you. See you later."_

' _What is he doing_?' Casey thought to himself, as well as trying to figure out his seemingly twisted motives.

 _"Hi Beck, your father and I just wanted to thank you for the flowers for our anniversary yesterday. You are an amazing stallion and I can't believe how much you've grown up. Hold on, your father wants to say something."_

Before Twilight could say anything, Beck moved on to the next message.

" _Hey Champ. Thanks for the flowers. I hope we can get the chance to spend some time together soon. We barely see you anymore, what with work and all. Your mother and I both love you. See you soon."_

' _Why is he playing messages from his family_?' Twilight thought, who was just as confused as Casey.

 _"Hey Beckie! Where are you?! Listen, you won't believe what just happened. I just got two tickets to the Hoofball Championship! Call me back as soon as you can so we can plan out the best day ever! Alright, I gotta go! Bye!"_

' _I just don't get it,'_ Casey and Twilight simultaneously thought.

"These were recorded during the summer… _three years ago_ ," Beck finished, and instantly, everyone realized why he played those messages.

"You lost someone," Twilight stated.

Beck shook his head, and replied, "No, Princess, I lost _everyone."_

' _That's what this is about_?' Casey thought, while Beck continued to tell his story.

" _I had been away when it happened…"_

* * *

 **Flashback (takes place during the season 4 finale)**

As Beck walked through the streets of Ponyville, he could instantly tell that something was not right.

"Where in the _heck_ is everypony at?" He asked, speaking to himself, and unaware of the events that had happened because of Tirek.

There was no sign of any pony that he was familiar with… no Derpy with a muffin in her hoof… no trio of fillies trying to get their Cutie Marks…

 _I don't even see the princess with her six frie - what the Tartarus?_

Beck was now standing in front of a sight that he never imagined would end up seeing… the Golden Oak Library, which he knew was the home of the young alicorn and her two assistants, was now destroyed, and scattered all around the area were now-ruined library books.

Before he could even say anything else, the green Earth Pony heard the sound of somepony crying, and was shocked to find a little salmon-colored filly hiding behind a nearby bench.

"Hey, hey, hey, it's alright, little one," said Beck, placing his hooves on her shoulders. "I'm here to help, okay? You have a mom, or…"

The little filly nodded her head, and Beck felt a little relieved. "Good, good… okay, we're going to find her… come on, you're safe with me."

So, for a few minutes, he walked around Ponyville in search of the little pony's mother, and because they weren't having much luck, Beck was starting to fear the worst… until he heard somepony call out for her child.

" _Rose! Rose, where are you, sweetie?"_

Praying that this was the filly's mother, Beck headed in the direction that the voice was coming from, and he soon found himself running up to a light-pink unicorn that the filly immediately recognized.

" _Mommy!"_

Once Beck placed Rose in the arms of her mother, the unicorn let out a sigh of relief, and said, "Oh, _thank you,_ kind sir… I don't know how I coule repay you, but-"

"No worries, m'am, I'm just glad I reunited the both of you," replied Beck, shaking his head. "But could you tell me where everypony else? Or why the library is now-"

 _KA-BOOOOOM!_

The filly's mother pointed at something behind Beck, and he turned around to see a yellow-ish mushroom explosion cloud appear in the sky. "What in Celestia was _that_?!"

"I think it was for whomever Princess Twilight is facing in order to save the rest of Ponyville, and all of Equestria," replied the middle-aged unicorn. "I believe his name was Tire - _wait, sir, where are you going?_ "

Beck was now running away from the two of them, and before she could speak again, he cried, "I'm going to check on my family! You take care of that filly!"

A few minutes later, Beck was away from Ponyville, and heading down the trail that would lead to where his own house was at.

 _I don't know what the heck is going on, but I hope Twilight knows what she-_

However, his thoughts were interrupted by the voice of a golden-yellow Earth Pony that was only a few years older than him. " _Sir! Sir, could you help me, please?"_

Deciding to take a quick break, Beck headed over to the nearby pony, who said, "I'm trying to find my son… have you seen him?"

Before Beck could give a reply, the two of them heard the faint sound of a female screaming, and the golden-yellow pony's face quickly became pale.

"That was my wife… _sweetheart!_ "

" _Sir, wait, what about your-"_ cried Beck, but the other pony was no longer paying him any attention.

He was about to yell louder when, suddenly, Beck felt a chill running down his spine, and his heart skipped a few beats as he whispered, " _No… it can't be…"_

Moving faster than he did earlier, Beck continued down the trail, and was praying that what he'd sensed… what he had felt… was not a reality.

 _Not her… please, not her! Don't let my wi-_

" _Aaaaaagggghhh!"_

Beck slightly turned his head to see (from several miles away) what appeared to be Twilight Sparkle being sent into a mountain, and not long after, a gigantic red-and-black centaur crashed through the same one!

"What in Equestria is happening?" wondered Beck. "And who was that crea - _Twinkle Star!_ "

All thoughts of whatever Twilight was dealing with left his mind because of what he had seen… it was his wife, who looked worn-out and was covered in several scorch marks.

"Oh, no, no, no, please, not this…" said Beck, who was now holding her in his front hooves, and he tried to wake her up. "Hey, it's okay, honey, I'm here… Twinkle Star, stay with me… you stay with me…"

Unfortunately, it wasn't doing much, and tears started to fall down his face. " _Star?"_

 **[Insert "Bruce Goes Home" by Craig Armstrong]**

Beck tried to listen for a heartbeat, but he couldn't find one, so after trying to wake her up again… and again… he realized that it was too late.

 _Why did this have to happen?_ thought Beck, and the faint rumbling sound from a few miles away made him wonder if this was because of-

 _Hold on..._

He looked down at his wife, and for a moment, Beck was confused. _She would never… alone… but that means… *gasp* MY FAMILY!_

Not wanting to waste any precious time (however much there was), Beck placed his wife's body on top of his back, and continued heading over to his house.

 _Mom… Dad… Night Light... Carl!_

A few minutes later, when Beck was almost halfway there, he suddenly noticed that the sky was back to normal again, and for a moment, he could've sworn that he saw a multi-colored energy ball appear from where he had last remembered seeing the princess at.

Then, Beck immediately became quiet while starting to slow down, and once he stopped, the light-green pony slowly lowered Twinkle Star onto the ground.

" _No… this can't be... why is…"_

For some reason, a large part of the ground itself had fallen onto his home, which was now destroyed, and Beck felt himself starting to turn pale, as well as feeling almost sick to his stomach.

He found himself no longer able to speak because of what he was seeing, and to make matters worse, a sudden breeze appeared in the air, which caused two small, worn-out objects that were made out of paper to land in front of him.

' _Oh no_ ,' Beck thought, whose hoof was starting to tremble in panic after picking up the slightly-damaged Hoofball championship tickets.

" _No… no… no, no, no, no, no…_ _ **NOOOOOOOO**_!"

The gardener pony fell to his hind knees and screamed into the heavens on pure despair, with tears rapidly flowing down his face.

* * *

 **Present Day**

After Beck had finished telling Twilight his recollection of the events that had happened on the day he lost his family, the purple alicorn found herself at a loss for words.

" _Me and my best friend were supposed to go to that game together_ …"

Twilight couldn't help but feel just a little sorry for him, and she was about to say that when Beck suddenly gave her a very dangerous look.

"And it's all because of _**YOU**_ that won't happen," growled Beck, who then full-on punched the purple alicorn in the face, and making almost everyone else speechless.

" _Twily_!" yelled Shining Armor, while Beck was starting to get more upset.

"Because of _YOU_ , I won't get to see my parents again," he punched her again, this time in the chest with his other hoof.

As Twilight began to whimper in pain, Casey pulled even harder on his cage bars, trying to free himself, but it was to no avail.

So, now, he was angry and upset for two reasons… one was because of what Beck was doing to Twilight, while the other was being angry at himself for not having his special wristwatch with him.

 _Stardust is probably dealing with something worse if things over here are terrible._

* * *

 _[Stardust's World]_

" _No… no… oh, [BEEP] no, come on!"_

A few seconds later, Twilight appeared at the doorway of her special somepony, and she asked, "What is it, Jack? What's wrong?"

Stardust let out a frustrated sigh, and pointed a hoof at his t.v. screen. "I was _so close_ to getting that damn final Chaos Emerald, but something happened to the screen for a quick second, and now I have to freakin' try _again_!"

When he didn't hear his girlfriend respond, Stardust turned to look at her, and saw that Twilight was giving her an expression with half-closed eyes. "What?"

"While _I'm_ worrying about Casey and his friends, _you're_ getting agitated because of a talking hedgehog?"

Stardust shook his head, and replied, "Um, actually, love, I am not really upset with Sonic, but rather the-"

" _Jack!"_

" _What?_ Twilight… love… this is my _childhood_ right here… whatever Casey probably isn't going through, it can wait until I beat this game."

The alicorn princess rolled her eyes, and Stardust added, " _Trust me,_ love, I'm sure that he and your other self are having some fun with their friends… I mean, how bad can it be over there if things are just fine here?"

* * *

 _[Casey's World]_

After several minutes of beating the defenseless alicorn, Beck took a quick pause while Twilight lifted her head up, and in a weak tone, she said, "I was… trying to… save everypony that I-"

But at this point, Beck could care less about what she had to say to him. "Well, what about everypony that _I_ cared about, Princess? Because of _you… I WON'T BE ABLE TO KISS MY WIFE AGAIN_!"

 _WHAM!_

" _Aaaaauuuggghhh!_ " Twilight yelled in pain as the latest punch from inflicted the greatest physical pain of them all.

" _BECAUSE OF YOU, I WON'T BE ABLE TO WATCH MY COLT GROW UP_!" He reeled back a hoof, and delivered the hardest punch he could muster.

Twilight found herself yelling again, in even more pain than before, and she swore that she felt a tooth dislodge from her gums, causing her mouth to fill with the taste of blood that was already seeping from the exterior of her face.

 _How in the **** is any of this stuff happening?_ thought Casey. _Stardust told me this show was for kids!_

Tears began to leak from the eyes of a certain baby dragon at the sight of his maternal figure being harmed with such brutality.

Not only was Twilight suffering physically at the hooves of Beck, but the only thing she was thinking as the whole beating occurred was, _'It was all my fault. It's my fault he ended up like this. I'm the reason all my friends are being held here.'_

Everyone else, aside from Casey, who was still pulling on his bars like a mad horse, was either too shocked or speechless to react to the scene before them… Fluttershy couldn't even bear to watch what was happening because it was too painful.

"And what did _you_ do, Princess, after causing all that death and destruction?" he whispered, in a fierce tone, and before punching her again.

"You went home to your shiny new castle. You ' _partied it up_ ' with your friends, when not too far away, a stallion was mourning the loss of HIS friends and family because of what YOU DID!"

Then, to everyone's fright, he let out a dark and sinister chuckle. "It's funny... that the Princess of Friendship ended up being the one that took my friend… my _family_... away from me."

"What happened to your family doesn't warrant this! We all decided to act..." Celestia tried to explain.

"Then why was _I_ the one who lost everything?" was all Beck could reply, not even facing her, stopping the Princess of the Sun in her tracks.

If Beck had fists, he would be clenching them.

"You have _no idea_ what it's like to lose someone special, Princess… but don't worry, I am about to make sure you-"

However, the sinister pony was interrupted by Casey, who cried, "You're not the only one who lost somepony that day!"

"Is that so?" Beck turned to Casey, and he walked over to his cage. "Who else, then?"

Remembering what he had went through that day, Casey was quiet, for a moment, before he replied, "I did… I lost my parents."

"And you actually _forgave_ her?! Twilight's actions led to their deaths, and instead, you're _dating_ her?!" exclaimed Beck, who was now genuinely astonished.

Remembering when his former master-and-enemy had asked him a similar question, Casey shook his head, and replied, "She was _saving_ Equestria… and I'm sorry you lost your family, but this is not _right_ … you _don't_ want to do-"

"It's not about what I _want_ , kid," exclaimed Beck, gritting his teeth in frustration. "It's about what is _fair_ … _someone_ needs to pay for all of the cruelty that happened."

He then trotted back over to the restrained Twilight, who unknowingly was producing tears that had begun mixing with the blood on her cheek.

"Where was I? Oh yes," he took a deep breath. "Ever since then, I wanted... no... I _needed_ vengeance… if not for them, then for _my_ piece of mind… I want you to _suffer_ , Twilight Sparkle, just like I did, if not, more so."

Before Twilight could say anything, Beck trotted over to his workstation in the lair, and used his mouth to open a drawer that contained twenty red and black darts. He took one of them out, walked back to the restrained alicorn and held it in front of her face.

"This dart contains another concoction of mind," explained Beck. "Only _this_ one is designed to knock someone out in a _more permanent_ manner, if you catch my drift."

All eyes in the room went wide as dinner plates, even Rainbow Dash's, who was not technically even in the room, but even with a limited view, she could almost tell what was happening.

"So… that's it, then?" Twilight said, her voice cracking, with more tears threatening to flow. "You're going to _k… k… kill_ all my friends and family, then me, all to av… ave… _avenge yours_."

"Oh no, Princess. Death is too good for you," Beck said with enough venom that, if words could kill, Twilight would already be six feet under, and he slowly backed away from the Princess of Friendship a bit.

"After all of this is over, _you_ get to go back to your little castle, and rule over Equestria. It still needs a ruler after all…

" _However_ , now you'll have to live for the rest of _eternity_ , with _this_ on your conscious. You'll live the rest of your life knowing that all this..."

Then, Beck lifted his hoof to gesture to all of Twilight's captured friends and family. "...was _all... your..._ _ **fault**_."

"You're despicable," Casey growled with the utmost contempt, though Beck could cared less

"Now... who wants to go first?" A massive intake of breaths took place, as the malevelont pony was essentially holding the lives of everyone in the lair in his hooves.

" _Hmmmmm_ …. _Eeney_..."

Sweat trickled down Moondancer's forehead as Beck pointed his hoof at several ponies.

" _...meeney_ …" Pinkie Pie was chewing on her tail in nervousness.

"... _ **miney**_ …"

A lump was now forming in the throat of Princess Celestia, while Beck paused for a moment, letting the tension sink in.

" _Just do it already!"_

"Rainbow!" Everyone but Beck scolded the still un-seen pink Pegasus, and another tense few seconds passed before a smile suddenly appeared on his face.

"... _Spike_." Beck stopped, pointing to the cage containing the baby dragon and Rarity. " _Looks like we have a winner."_

Then, all Tartarus broke loose inside of the room.

 _"No, not Spike!"_

"He's just a baby.. relatively speaking!"

"What?!"

"DON'T YOU DARE GO NEAR HIM!"

"No, use me instead!"

" _Pinkie!"_

Beck walked over to the cage, and the white unicorn stepped in front of Spike, giving him a look that would have frightened any other pony.

"Move aside, Rarity. It'll be _your turn_ soon, anyway…" Beck said, voice void of any emotion except possibly annoyance.

" _You'll have to pry Spikey-wikey from my cold, dead hooves_ ," Rarity vowed, pulling the dragon closer, but then, something happened that shocked almost everyone in the room except for Beck.

"Just let him... h-have me, Rarity," Spike managed to croak out. "If it means you'll be alive for… for just a little longer..."

Rarity turned to face the baby dragon, throwing all caution to the wind.

"Don't talk like that, Spike," she said. "I'm not worth one bit compared toy you."

Twilight nodded her head, but she still had trouble trying to speak because of her bruises that Beck had delivered.

Unfortunately, Spike's mind was already made up.

The way he saw it, with Beck standing right behind them, he knew the first to bite the dust would be him or Rarity, and Celestia-damnit if he had to die so that Rarity could live, even if it was only for a short time, he'd do it.

So, with death starring him in the face, Spike fulfilled two things on his bucket list. He took Rarity's cheeks in both of his arms, and crashed her muzzle to his, locking them into a kiss that the dragon had been dreaming of ever since his arrival in Ponyville. The action caused a silence to set in as everypony witnessing it starred in both awe, and anguish.

"What's going on!? Is he dead?!" Rainbow asked, from below, panicked.

 _##################_

 _Meanwhile, in Stardust's World_

As he made his way back to the castle, Spike said, " _Wow, I… am… stuffed! Sure hope Star and Twilight were able to-"_

However, he stopped moving for a moment, and found himself turning his head side-to-side.

"Why do I feel like I should be jealous of someone?"

 _#####################_

Once Spike pulled away, he uttered three simple words that sent the room back into protests once more.

"I love you."

He then pushed the unicorn to his left and hopped outside the cage, with the door closing shut before Rarity could attempt at stopping him.

With a slight chuckle, Beck took the dragon by one of his hooves, and led him right in front of Twilight. No tears were in the little dragon's eyes anymore, having accepted his fate.

If Twilight wasn't broken before, she was now.

" _NO! SPIKE, DON'T... PLEASE, NO, SPIKE_!" Twilight screeched through the tears in her eyes and the small amount of blood in her muzzle, thrashing against her restraints in a feeble attempt to save the dragon that she saw as one of her closest friends… her #1 assistant… and, in a way, someone she treated as if he were her own child.

As for Casey, he began making sounds of frustration while his rage continued to grow, and for a moment, Discord could have sworn that his Cutie Mark was starting to glow.

 _I swear…_ thought Casey. _If that monster harms a single scale on his head..._

Beck took the lid off the dart, exposing the needle that would deliver Spike's doom, paying no mind to the screams of protest going on all around him.

"Will it... hurt?" Spike asked meekly.

Beck gave smile to the dragon. "Not at all. It'll be like going to sleep."

"Okay," Spike said, closing his eyes, ready for the end.

Beck placed Spike, with the dragon's back facing him, in front of a target he placed on a wall, and looked to Twilight, who was ignoring her own pain to beg for Spike to stop.

Then, while Beck placed the dart in his trusty tube, ready to fire when ready, Spike looked over at Twilight, and gave her a look that meant _I'm sorry, and I love you, but I_ _ **have**_ _to do this._

" _No, Spike, please!_ " cried the purple alicorn, while Rarity was becoming distraught.

Spike let out a sigh, and under the assumption that these would be his final words, he looked at Twilight. "I… love you… _Mom_ …"

Another tense, and loud, few seconds passed as Beck moved the tube closer to his mouth.

 _WHOOSH!_

" _NOOOO_!" Many ponies yelled in emotional agony… though it turned to relief when they discovered Spike was still standing.

Sure enough, the dart had been shot into the target above Spike's head.

However, Beck remained smiling like the Cheshire Cat.

" _How_ _ **dare**_ _you toy with our emotions!"_ exclaimed Rarity.

Beck retrieved another dart from his drawer, which was a couple steps behind him, and loaded it into the tube.

A fresh new round of yells and protest began, demanding he cease his actions.

Once again, Beck milked the tension, and Twilight's suffering, by slowly moving the tube towards his muzzle.

 **"GET HIM!"**

 _WHOOSH!_

Spike clenched his eyes shut, waiting for the prick that would seal his fate. However, it never came… instead, he heard yells coming from behind him.

The little dragon turned around, and opened his eyes, to find two blue-and-yellow suited Pegasus ponies on top of Beck.

Spike would surmise later that they must have interfered with Beck's shot, causing him to miss.

" _What's going on?! What's happening_?!" Rainbow Dash yelled. " _What am I missing?!"_

More Wonderbolts appeared from the shadows of the lair's entrance to either assist in the skirmish, or too free prisoners.

" _CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS RESCUERS, YEAH_!"

The unmistakabke battle cry of Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo camep as they bounded down the spiral stairs into the lair, with Big Mac in tow.

" _Applejack_!" Apple Bloom yelled as she and Big Mac ran to their sister's cage that she shared with Starlight.

" _Rarity_!" Sweetie Belle yelled as she bounded to her sister's cage.

" _Where's Rainbow Dash_?" Scootaloo and a dark-blue maned Wonderbolt said at the same time.

"I'm down here!" Said mare yelled.

Scootaloo and Soarin quickly rushed over to the trap door that Beck had opened, and entered the underground room to find Rainbow in yet another cage.

While the Cutie Mark Crusdader dealt with the lock Unfirtunatly, Soarin couldn't pass up a small snicker at Rainbow's current appearence.

"Just _get me out of here_ , alright!"

Above the duo, while some Wonderbolts, the other two CMCs, and Big Mac were destroying locks and freeing Beck's prisoners, Beck himself was being fought by Spitfire, Fleetfoot, and High Winds.

' _Knew I should have added more security to this place_ ,' Beck mentally grumbled.

Mustering all the strength he could, he managed to remove the three Wonderbolts from on top of him.

Meanwhile, another Wonderbolt, Silver Zoom, managed to free Casey, and while his first instinct was to hit Beck where it hurt, Twilight was still restrained, so instead, he dashed toward the purple alicorn.

"All Wonderbolts, _get him_!" Spitfire yelled as she, Fleetfoot, and High Winds made their way to their hooves before giving chase to the seemingly fleeing Earth Pony. However, that couldn't be farther from the truth.

As that was going on, Casey managed to undo Twilight's restraints, causing her to fall towards the lair's floor. Luckily, Casey was able to catch her just before she caused herself to recieve any more pain.

"You okay?" asked the young pony, his eyes full of love and concern, and Twilight quietly nodded her head. "Good… I'm sorry-"

He was cut off by a sudden kiss that came from his special somepony, and Twilight smiled while Casey let out a sheepish chuckle.

Meanwhile, the black-maned stallion galloped to his work station and pulled out another drawer. _The game's not over until_ _ **I**_ _say it is!_

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the approaching Wonderbolts. Using his workstation as an anchor, Beck lifted his hind legs and delivered the hardest buck he could possibly give.

Seeing this, Casey realized what he needed to do. He looked to find that Spike, due to shock, had not moved since the Wonderbolts entered the lair.

"Spike!" Casey called. "Spike!"

" _Huh?_ W-what?" Spike asked, dumbstruck.

"You need to get Twilight away from here, Spike… _now_ ," Casey said, gesturing to the Princess of Friendship struggling to stand, due to cramps from being restrained for so long, as well as emotional tiredness.

"You can count on me," Spike said as he ran over to the purple alicorn. "Twilight, xome on, let's go - _oof_!"

"Spike!" The purple alicorn embraced the dragon with intensity, relieved he was alive and well. "I… I'm s-so… so sorry, Spike."

"I… forgive… _y-you… also… can't… breath_ ," Spike gestured to his throat, and Twilight immediately put him down upon hearing that.

"Come on, let's get out of here," Spike said as he helped Twilight onto her hooves.

Rarity was about to say something to the little dragon, but decided that it would be best for them to talk about their "moment" at a safer place.

Meanwhile, Soarin (who had already brought Rainbow Dash out of her hole and handed her off to Scootaloo) was leading the charge, which meant that he was the first to meet face-to-hoof with pain. This created a domino effect that caused many other Wonderbolts to either fall or stumble.

Having bought himself enough time, Beck grabbed something from the drawer he opened, which he then aimed at the Wonderbolts, and fired.

" _AAAAAUGH_!" The group, sans Spitfire, Fleetfoot, and High Winds, yelled as they were struck by the lightning emanating from the gun whose trigger Beck was holding on his mouth.

The use of the weapon elicited wide-eyes from Fluttershy, who was still waiting to be freed by Big Mac and the CMC from her shared cage with Discord.

' _That's Rowan's power_ ,' she thought, remembering when she had seen the evil pegasus use it on Casey's gold-colored friend.' _How did he get that_?'

' _You little...'_ Beck thought, approaching the CMC and Big Mac, his intentions painfully clear, and their eyes widened, realizing what was about to happen.

However, before Beck could get the chance to do so, he was rammed into from the side, sending him crashing against one of the lair's walls, knocking the lightning gun from his muzzle.

"Get away from them, you _[BEEP]_ ," he growled.

Beck grunted as he pulled himself up. "Well, I guess I underestimated you, Casey… but if it's a fight you want, then it's a fight you'll get."

Now filled with determination, Casey first turned to Spitfire. "Get everyone else outta here. I got a score to settle with _him_..."

Spitfire nodded in understanding, and she ordered, "Wonderbolts, once you retrieve a hostage, retreat!"

As for Beck and Casey, the two Earth Ponies stared each other down as if it were a duel in Appleoosa. The black manned stallion made the first move, taunting Casey with a hoof motion that practically screamed, "Come at me, bro!"

"You're _mine_ now," growled Casey, and they both charged at each other furiously.

 _ **Outside**_

Everyone gave sighs of relief now that they had escaped, with the Wonderbolts hard at work trying to remove the restraints Beck had on the wings and horns.

Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash, despite her appearance, embraced their little sisters - well, surrogate sister in Rainbow's case - while commending them on their bravery.

"That was mighty gutsy, sugurcube," Applejack commended.

" _Thank heavens_ you arrived when you did, darlings," Rarity said, mascara still running down her face from the crying she'd done earlier, and reminding herself to talk with Spike once the chance arrived.

"That was _awesome_ , kiddo!" Rainbow congratulated.

"It wasn't that hard," Scootaloo explained boastfully. "But, uh, why do you look, er…"

Rainbow rolled her eyes, and she replied, "Yeah yeah, I know, but at least it didn't make me a pink ghost or somethin equally weird."

Applejack looked down at her sister, and asked, "So, how _did_ y'all know when to-"

"After Twilight and Casey were gone for a long time, I went to get Big Mac while Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo got the Wonderbolts," Apple Bloom said.

"Once they heard that we knew where Rainbow Dash was, we made our way back and the rest is history," Sweetie Belle finished.

Applejack turned towards her older brother. "Thank ya kindly, Big Mac."

" _Eeehh-yuuupp, no problem_ ," Big Mac said simply, relieved his sister was okay.

A short distance away, Twilight was resting and being given first aid by one of the Wonderbolts, who was proficient on the subject, on the lawn of Beck's home with Spike, the purple alicorn refusing to let the baby dragon leave her side.

"Spike, did you really mean what you said back there?" Twilight asked.

"I said a lot of things, Twilight," Spike said, attempting to dodge the question, and praying that Rarity wouldn't come over to them. "Care to be more specific?"

"When you said you loved me… and called me 'Mom," said the Princess of Friendship, who portrayed an expression of nervousness.

"Well, I mean…. You hatched me, raised me, and made me the dragon I am now… so, I _kind of_ see you as my mother," Spike hastily explained, hoping to Celestia this wouldn't be as awkward as he thought.

Suddenly, the little dragon's words struck a chord within Twilight.

* * *

 **Flashback - A few days before Casey, Pinkie, and Twilight met Stardust back in "A Race Against Time"**

The comfortable alicorn was awoken from her slumber by a small finger poking at one of her tucked-in wings.

She grumbled, not liking the fact that someone woke her in the middle of the night because, according to Twilight, she had to get as much sleep as possible so that she would be ready for her date with Casey tomorrow.

" _Twilight_ ," a small murmur escaped the lips of a small dragon, and immediately, Twilight's mood went from annoyed to concerned as she turned to find a hesitant Spike.

"What's wrong, Spike?"

"I…." he mumbled something.

"What was that?"

"I can't, er, sleep," he hastily said.

"Well, why not?" Twilight asked, sitting up and turning on her lamp.

"I don't know," Spike explained. "I just feel so anxious… I can't relax for the life of me!"

Twilight gave Spike a knowing look. "This is about Casey, isn't it?"

"Well can you blame me?" the baby dragon defended himself. "You're going on a date, with somepony I barely know."

"Why aren't you happy for me then?" Twilight asked, curious.

"I just…. I just want him to be good for you. If he doesn't love you as much as I do, I'm worried that he'll break your heart, and I don't want that to happen to you, Twilight. I'd never forgive myself if somepony hurt you when I could have warned you."

Twilight smiled at Spike's concern.

"Don't worry, Spike. Casey's a nice stallion. Even if things don't work out, I'm sure he'll be nice about it," she explained. "Besides, if he ever does hurt me, I can just magic him into last week."

Spike smiled slightly. "Thanks, Twi. I know it's silly. I'm sorry I bothered you." He turned around to go back to his bed.

"Spike," The Princess of Friendship called.

The baby dragon turned around to find Twilight had scooted over in her bed, tapping the spot she left open.

Spike's face beamed and he ran and jumped right onto the spot Twilight tapped, pulled the sheets over him and got a comfy. Twilight clicked off the lamp and settled back into bed herself.

"Good night, Twilight."

"Good night, Spike." Twilight said, as she placed one of her wings around Spike protectively.

* * *

 **Present**

' _I've been his mother all along_ ,' thought Twilight, and at the realization, she gathered Spike in her hooves once more, though there was one major difference.

It wasn't just an embrace between friends, but a tenderly embrace between a mother and son.

"I'm so glad I have you, Twilight," Spike said, crying few tears of his own.

"You can call me ' _Mom_ ' if you want, Spike," Twilight permitted, which only caused the baby dragon to cry harder.

" _Awwwwww..._ " Pinkie Pie said, voicing the thoughts of everyone who watched the tender moment.

Once the two separated, Spike only had one more question. "So, if you're my 'mom', does that mean, uh.. Casey is my _dad_?"

Twilight giggled, "I guess it does," and that's when something struck her.

"Wait, where _is_ Casey?"

"He said he had a score to settle with that Beck guy," Spitfire replied.

"What?!" Twilight yelled in shock.

"Wow, Casey's out for blood!" Pinkie cried.

Everypony there looked to the pink pony with wide eyes at Pinkie's bluntness.

"What? Didn't anyone else hear Casey scream that he was gonna kill Beck?" Pinkie pointed out.

" _Kill_?!" Twilight yelled in alarm. "No, I can't let him do something he'll regret... I'm going in."

"Wait... Twilight, you forgot to rrree… _and_ she's gone," said Minuette, who had tried to stop the bruised and battered alicorn from going back in until after her restraints had been removed.

* * *

If there was anything for Casey to learn from this fight, it was the fact that Beck definitely wasn't like any of the other ponies that he'd fought in the past.

"Is this really the best that you can do?" taunted Beck, who had dodged a swift right hook from Casey's front left hoof, and before Casey could react, the cloaked pony suddenly jumped towards him, wrapping his limb around Casey's neck.

Then, Beck used his strength to slam his opponent down to the ground, and as Casey began to cough, he said, "How pathetic... and here I thought you'd actually be somewhat of a challenge for me."

"You son of a - oof!" Casey was cut off after feeling a hoof placed onto the top of his chest, pinning him to the ground, and Beck started to laugh.

"And there's sure as hell ain't gonna be a brave little princess coming to your rescue... not after everything I-"

 _WHAM!_

The next thing he knew, Beck was flying across the room, and crash-landing into his own work table.

As for Casey, he was surprised yet relieved to see his girlfriend. "Thank you, Twili - um... you _do_ realize that your restraints are still on, right?"

"They are?" Twilight looked down at her hooves, realizing that he was right, and she sheepisly replied, "Whoops… I guess I was too busy-"

 _WHAM!_

However, she was cut off by the unexpect arrival of Beck's broken table, with one of the pieces falling down on Twilight, who whimpered in pain.

" _I am not having all of my hard work be put to waste!"_ yelled Beck, who then started charging towards Casey, and he delivered a solid headbutt to the young pony's chest, causing Casey to fall down while crying painfully.

Then, Beck was about to pin him down when, to his surprise, Casey used a lot of his strength to send him crashing into the nearest wall.

 _Huh, so_ _ **that's**_ _how Evil Stardust must have felt while doing… oh, great,_ thought Casey, who saw that Beck was quickly making his way back over to-

 _WHAM!_

After throwing the cage that Spike had been in at Beck, which caused him to fall the ground, Twilight flew towards Casey to help the young pony stand up.

"How in the heck were you able to do that?" wondered Casey, who then worked on freeing his girlfriend from her restraints once he was up to his hooves.

"The cage wasn't… _that_ heavy for me to throw," replied a worn-out Twilight, and once the restraints were off, she let out a sigh of relief. "Now, come on, let's go… and get the other- _look out_!"

The young alicorn pushed Casey out of the way before he could get hit by the blast of electricity that had come from Beck's weapon, but unfortunately, she wasn't able to dodge it herself.

"Understandable, but I'm still not finished with you, _princess_ ," growled Beck, and he picked Twilight up so that he could throw her against one of the cages.

Then, the light-green Earth Pony placed his hoof on top of Twilight's bruised chest, and the more pressure he applied, the louder her screams of pain became.

"Where's the magic of friendship _now_ , Princess?" asked Beck, who continued to press his hoof harder against Twilight's chest.

" _Leave… her…_ _ **alone**_ _!"_

Before Beck could get a response from her, Casey jumped towards him, and speared the evil pony to the ground.

"I don't care what anypony else says," growled a furious Casey, looking down at the fallen pony. "You're about to be reunited with your fami-"

 _KZZZZZZZZZZZZT!_

Grabbing the nearest dart he could get his hooves on, Beck then rammed it into the right side of Casey's body, and the young pony was struck by even more electricity.

Then, once Casey fell to the ground, Beck began to chuckle, and he said, "I still can't believe that you never _once_ blamed Twilight for what happened to your parents."

"It's like I… said… that wasn't her fault," replied Casey, who was trying to stand up again.

"So not once were you were _ever_ angry at Twilight?" asked Beck.

Casey was about to answer him, but for some reason, the young pony started to wonder if he _had_ actually, at one point, blamed Twilight for what-

 _WHAM!_

Using his opponent's distraction to his advantage, Beck knocked him down to the ground with his hoof, and with a sinister smile, he said, "Either way, _Casey_ , it's too late now… and I'm about to reunite _you_ with your parents."

Then, Beck prepared to use all of his strength so that he could deliver a fatal blow to Casey's head, but at the very last second, a magical energy blast sent him flying into the nearest cage, and before he could even get up, said object came crashing down onto him, thus preventing Beck from standing up.

" _What… the…?"_ Beck started to say, but he was cut off after a piece of the broken table flew straight towards him, and the pain from that caused him to feel drowsy. " _I… am… not…"_

 _WHOOSH!_

After his front left limb had been struck by one of his darts, Beck was barely able to roll his eyes as he said, "You… _got… lucky…_ "

Then, everything around him went black, and a few seconds later, the sinister Earth Pony was finally unconcious.

As for Casey, he looked over at Twilight, who had somehow been able to break the _"magic-hold"_ device (which Casey had forgotten to remove) that Beck had placed on her horn, and that had allowed the princess to fire an energy blast at her enemy, as well as cause the cage to fall on him, and fire the nearest dart that she could find.

"Huh, who would've thought that his own dart would be used against him?" said Casey, but to his surprise, Twilight shook her head.

"I don't think the dart helped… much… it was probably everything else that…" said Twilight, but she suddenly began to cough, causing Casey to become concerned for her safety.

"Let's get you some help…"

Twilight gave him a weak nod, but after taking another look at Beck, she asked, "What if he wa-"

" _Twilight? Casey?"_

The two of them turned their heads to see an approaching Starlight, who could not believe what she was seeing.

"Are… you two… okay?"

Before the young alicorn could respond, Casey replied, "I'll be fine, but Twilight is… worse… so while I get her some help… we need you to make sure _he_ doesn't wake up… when he does, it'll be for when I'm about to ki-"

Twilight suddenly started coughing again, and Starlight nodded her head, saying, "I got it, Casey… you two just hurry on over to the hospital."

"Thanks, Star," replied a grateful Casey, and the two ponies walked out of the room while Starlight took a close look at the unconcious Beck.

However, while Casey was thinking about ways to end Beck's life for everything that he'd done to _his_ friends, Twilight was thinking about something completely different.


	14. Right or Wrong

**MLP: Seeds of the Past**

 _Chapter 14 - Right or Wrong_

 _Author's Note: "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" belongs to DHX Media and Hasbro, while Stardust Balance is owned by the Warrior of Twilight, and FanficFan920 is the one who created Beck, whom I sure you all hate by now._

* * *

 _Anti-Equestria_

The Anti-Mane 6 (minus Midnight) were all sitting in the throne room, looking at the Cutie Mark Map when suddenly, Evil Stardust entered the room, along with Twilight's evil counterpart.

"First of all… whatever was inside of _this_ piece of crap-"

The dark-gold pony tossed the unfrozen canteen at the wall, and everyone watched it fall to the ground, now smashed… as well as opened.

"- was already taken," growled Evil Stardust, who looked frustrated. "All that happened was a tiny puff of black smoke coming out… which means that Kronos was more foolish than I thought."

"Well that sucks," replied Anti-Rainbow, who was shaking her head. "So, now what?"

A sly grin suddenly appeared on Evil Stardust's face, and he looked at Midnight. "Make sure no one comes for her, alright, sweetheart?"

The young alicorn nodded her head, and she shared a kiss with her boyfriend, who watched her walk away while Anti-Rainbow made a noise of disgust.

Then, once she was gone, Evil Stardust raised up the Time Staff, and said, " _Now_ is the time for us to unleash all kinds of hell… _now_ is the time for us to have our revenge… _now,_ Rainbow, is the time for us to make Casey and my pathetic counterpart realize that they _[BEEP]-ed_ with the wrong group of ponies!"

* * *

 _Casey's World_

A few days later, Twilight opened her eyes to find herself laying in a hospital bed, and she quickly noticed that almost her entire body was bandaged up, as well as the top part of her head.

 _Well, that's not surprising… but where is-_

" _Twilight?"_

The young alicorn turned her head to the side, and found herself looking at several of her friends, which consisted of Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie, Rainbow, Fluttershy, the CMC, Spike, and Starlight, all of them looking relieved to see the princess finally awake.

"H-hey, everypony…" said Twilight, sitting up a little in her bed. "How long was I… out?"

"Just a few days, darling," replied Rarity. "Once you and Casey arrived here, they took you straight to the emergency ward, and-"

However, she was interrupted by an alarmed Twilight saying, "Casey? Is he okay?"

Starlight answered by making a head gesture to the other side of the room, which was where Twilight saw a resting Casey, also bandaged up.

"I guess in some ways, he was as bad as you, Twi," said Applejack. "Cause he hasn't woken up since we saw him walk in here with you on his back."

To her relief, she could see that Casey was breathing, so Twilight figured that he needed _a lot_ of rest, but as the memories of what had happened with Beck started coming back, she asked, "What happened to-"

"Your parents, Shining Armor, and Cadence are at the Crystal Empire, helping fix the damage that Beck caused over there," said Starlight. "And I guess it's taking a while to convince Flurry Heart that everything's fine now."

"Your Canterlot pals went back to their homes to let their parents know they were safe," replied Sweetie Belle. "But they said for us to tell you that they would visit you as soon as they got the chance."

"Discord is with Princess Luna and Princess Celestia," said Fluttershy. "They have… um… _him_ … locked away pretty good, and won't release him until you're ready to talk with Luna and Celestia about what should happen to him."

A look of confusion appeared on Twilight's face, and she asked, "Why are they waiting for my decision?"

Applejack gave a small shrug, and Rainbow replied, "They wouldn't tell us, for some reason… just that they would try to agree with whatever you think is fair."

" _Oh_ …" said Twilight, and for a moment, she remained silent while looking at everyone that was in the room. "Uh… what do you all think I should do?"

Rainbow was the first pony to give her an answer. "Well, _I_ would beat the livin' _heck_ out of him for what he did to you, and for making me pi - oh, uh, that reminds me… you think you could find a way to make this _pink_ go awa - _ow!_ "

"Her bein' healthy is a little more important right now," said Applejack, who had thumped the pegasus on the back of her head. "You can handle lookin' like Pinkie for a few more days."

" _Ugggghhhh… I don't_ _ **want**_ _to be a pink pegasus anymore!"_ cried Rainbow, and Twilight let out a little chuckle at her friend's antics.

"Don't worry, Rainbow, I'm sure I could find a way to get rid of all that _pink_ ," said the young alicorn. "In the meantime… um… would one of you mind helpin' me get to the little- _ahhh!_ "

" _Already got you covered, Twilight,"_ replied Pinkie, who gently placed Twilight on her back, and she was about to quickly head over to the nearest restroom when Applejack told her to wait for a moment.

"Ya gotta _walk_ her over there, Pinkie… she ain't exactly ready for your, um, _quick methods_ of transportation."

While Twilight let out a sigh of relief, and silently thanking her friend, Pinkie just nodded her head, and said, "No proble-"

"And she means to actually _walk_ , Pinkie," added Starlight. "No bouncing."

At first, Pinkie looked disappointed to hear that, but then, she simply smiled at the purple unicorn, and replied, "Sure thing, Twilight!"

"Uh… I'm _Star-_ light, Pinkie."

The pink pony looked between Starlight and Twilight several times before saying, " _Oops,_ sorry about that… but now I see why Ember gets so confused between the two of you."

Teacher and graduated pupil both let out a groan as Pinkie walked safely out of the room, and once they were gone, Starlight said, " _Please_ tell me you can all see that me and Twilight don't look or sound alike in _any way_."

" _Er_ …" said Rainbow, letting out a sheepish chuckle, while everyone else casually looked around the room. "Well, aside from the fact that you don't have alicorn wings… I can _kind of_ see why Ember would think you were Twilight."

" _What?"_ cried a surprised Starlight. "How could you say that? It's like me saying you and _Applejack_ both sound like each other."

Both Rainbow and Applejack let out a chuckle, and replied, "Well, _that_ is just ridiculous!"

* * *

 _A week later_

Once Twilight and Casey were cleared to leave the hospital, the first thing they chose to do was take a train ride to Canterlot, along with the rest of the Mane 6 and Starlight.

Then, the nine of them were led to the royal castle by Ride Along, and after he took the group of friends to the throne room, the officer pony said, "Glad to see everything worked out alright, Princess Twilight."

After Twilight nodded her head, Ride Along walked out of the room, and a few seconds later, Rainbow said, " _Ugh,_ he's even worse than those fillies who kept asking me to tell them about me meeting Daring Do… does he _have_ to make those siren sounds?"

Before anyone else could give her a response, they heard a familiar voice speak towards them.

"It's good to see you like this, Twilight… how are you feeling?"

The young alicorn smiled at her former teacher, and she replied, "A lot better than when I first woke up in the hospital, but I still have to keep a few of these bandages around my chest for a few more days."

"We are very glad to hear that, Twilight," said Princess Luna, whose smile suddenly became a slight frown. "However, I hate to point out that there _is_ a reason why you have come, correct?"

Twilight nodded her head, and Celestia said, "Before we start, I need to know if you'll be okay seeing him, Twilight."

It took a moment for the Princess of Friendship to think about an answer for her, and once she knew what it was, Twilight's face became full of determination. "I'll be okay… especially since I'm with my friends and special somepony."

A smile appeared on Celestia's face as she said, "With that being said… _Discord_!"

 _POOF!_

Suddenly, the draconequs was in the middle of the room, with a cage placed next to him that contained Beck in a straightjacket.

"Well, it _has_ been rather fun watching this bad pony squirm around in his cage," said an amused Discord. "But I guess the fun would have to end eventually… oh, and you don't know how happy I am to see you look so much better, Twilight."

"Thanks, Discord," replied a genuinely surprised Twilight. "I, uh… am also glad you look okay, too."

Before the smiling draconequs could say something else, Beck (whose muzzle was covered up with duct tape) began to let out cries of frustration, which made Princess Celestia clear her throat.

"Right then… _Beck_?"

The somewhat-silenced pony turned his attention over to the sun-raising royal alicorn, and she added, "A few weeks ago, you captured several innocent ponies, as well as a young dragon… caused property damage to the castle at the Crystal Empire… severely harmed many of the guards both _here_ and at the Crystal Empire… forcibly changed Rainbow Dash's coat from blue to pink… tried to permanently end Spike's life by a poisonous dart… and committed acts of brutality against Princess Twilight Sparkle, along with her special somepony… is this not true?"

Everyone looked at Beck, who simply nodded his head, and before Celestia could speak again, Rainbow whispered, " _So, um, Twilight, you think once this is over, you could fix me back at your castle -_ _ **ow**_ _!"_

After Applejack apologized to Celestia for Rainbow's interruption, the Princess of the Night said, "Normally, your fate would be up to both me and my sister… and if that were the case, you would not even _be here right now."_

For a moment, Beck felt a little afraid, and he did a small nervous gulp after hearing Luna's statement.

" _However…_ we have agreed to let the final decision be up to Twilight," said Celestia, and Beck turned to look at the purple alicorn. "She was the one who suffered the most pain out of everypony else, and we believe that she'll do what is right when it comes to what your fate may be."

Then, she delivered a nod at Twilight, who then walked up to Beck's cage, and the two ponies looked at each other, in silence.

 _Come on, Twilight,_ thought Casey. _You can do this… it's just like we talked about..._

A few moments later, the young alicorn frowned at Beck, and said, "You captured almost everypony that meant a great deal to me… you were close into ending Spike's life right in front me… and we _all know_ what you personally did to _me_."

Beck just remained silent, and looked at her with a pokerface expression.

"And, yes, like Princess Luna said, if it were up to them, you and I would not be speaking to each other at this very moment…"

A slight smile started to appear on Casey's face.

"... so as the Princess of Friendship… I have decided that the right thing to do… is, first of all, to not take away your life-"

" _Thank you, Twilight!"_

Everyone looked over at Casey, who was walking over to Beck's cage with a dangerous look in his eye. "I'm gonna enjoy doing this to youuuuuu… wait a second…"

After realizing what she had just said, the young pony looked back at Twilight. "You mean to tell me that… you're actually going to _spare_ him?"

She nodded her head, and a scowl appeared on Casey's face. "So after _everything_ that he _did_ … rather than sentence him to _death_ … you choose to-"

" _Casey."_

The young pony immediately became silent after hearing Princess Luna say his name, and she added, "Although I understand why you are upset, please allow Twilight to explain _why_ she is choosing to refrain from ending his life."

Not wanting to cause any unnecessary trouble, Casey nodded his head, and patiently waited like everyone else for the purple alicorn to speak.

"May I ask _why_ you have chosen to do this, Twilight?" said Princess Celestia.

After taking a deep breath, Twilight gave her response. "I am the Princess of _Friendship_ … not the Princess of _Revenge_ or _Brutality_ … sentencing somepony to their death is just not something that I don't think I could ever do.

"And, yes, what he did was terrible… that I can agree with 100%... but so were the things that Sunset Shimmer did, and now, she's one of my closest friends… even when Starlight-"

"Um, before you continue, er, Twilight," replied said unicorn, who now looked a little nervous. "Did the option of _death_ ever come up when you and your friends discussed what would happen to me?"

Twilight gave her a confused look, and said, "No, of course not, and that's what I-"

" _Oh, thank goodness,"_ exclaimed a relieved Starlight, who was now embracing the purple alicorn, and Twilight chuckled while softly patting the top of her head.

Then, after she was done, Starlight coughed into her hoof, and said, "Um, please continue…"

Looking back at the Royal Sisters, Twilight continued to give her explaination. "The point that I am making is, although Starlight, Sunset… even Discord ( _"Hey!")_... who learned the true value of friendship, thanks to Fluttershy…"

The draconequs and yellow pegasus looked at each other, with both of them smiling, and Discord said, "Thank you, Twilight…"

Twilight gave a slight nod of her head, and added, "Despite the terrible things that they did, they were given a chance to do what was _right_ , and so far, everything for them has worked out just fine…

"In Beck's case, despite how cruel it seems, he was only doing it to avenge the loss of his loved ones… and maybe if I'd been a little more careful-"

"Hold on a moment, Twilight," interrupted Celestia, who was holding up a hoof, and was looking at her with concern. "Do not blame yourself for what happened… Tirek is the one responsible, not you… is that understood?"

Twilight waited a moment before nodding her head, and then, she said, "I know it sounds insane, but I do think that I can help Beck realize the error of his ways… so in order to that, I have also decided to place him in the dungeon of my castle-"

" _We have a dungeon?"_ whispered Casey and Starlight, who were both looking at each other.

"- where he'll be watched everyday by either me, or one of my friends… to make sure that nothing like this will happen ever again…"

Before Celestia could say something, a grining Discord asked, " _Ooh,_ can I take him over there right now, and take the first watch?"

"Um… _sure…?"_

Discord let out a quick laugh of victory, and with a snap of his fingers, the draconequs was gone, along with Beck, whose cage was now empty.

"Are you sure this is your final decision, Twilight?" asked Celestia. "Because if it is, there will be _no one_ that can change it… not even yourself…"

To Casey's irritation, Twilight nodded her head, and the white alicorn said, "Very well… whatever happens next all depends on you, Twilight… but me and my sister have faith in that you know exactly what it is that needs to be done…"

"Thank you.. both of you…" replied Twilight, who was now smiling, along with the rest of her friends, but as they all left the throne room, Casey continued to frown because of what his girlfriend had decided.

* * *

 **Future - Several Days Later**

"So is that the reason you two broke up?" wondered Jack.

After finishing half of his _special_ drink, Casey replied, "No, but it didn't exactly prevent it from happening…"

The bartender let out a sigh, and said, "Sounds like there's still more for you to tell, son."

Casey nodded his head, and after finishing the rest of his beverage, he replied, "Uh-huh… that's when all _[BEEP]_ broke loose… but, uh, can I get a refill before I continue?"


	15. Creating a Crack

**MLP: Seeds of the Past**

 _Chapter 15 - Creating a Crack_

 _Author's Note:_ _ **"My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic"**_ _belongs to Hasbro and DHX Media, while Stardust Balance is owned by the Warrior of Twilight, and Beck was created by FanficFan920, who-_

 _[Beck] Yeah, yeah, we get it, everypony hates me now… jeez, I was only-_

 _[Stardust] What the ****..._ _ **he**_ _gets to be here now?_

 _[Beck] Yeah, so what?_

 _[Stardust] Man, you better get out of here before I_ _ **murder**_ _you for what you did to my girlfriend!_

 _[Beck] It wasn't_ _ **your**_ _Twilight, moron, it was-_

 _ ***fighting noises***_

 _[Me] Please enjoy this chapter while I settle things between these two… no, Star, no, you put that down right now!_

* * *

A few hours after leaving Canterlot, the Mane 6 - and Starlight were sitting in their own throne room, with Twilight asking everypony what they thought about her decision.

"I don't see any problem with it, sugarcube," replied Applejack. "Not sure when I'd be able to keep watch over him, but if the chance ever comes, I'd be more than happy to take over for whoever's watchin him at the time."

Everyone else gave their own similar agreements, as well, which made the young princess feel more relaxed in knowing that she _was_ making the right decision, and Rainbow Dash was about to remind Twilight in helping her go from pink to blue when Fluttershy realized something.

"Um… Twilight, where is Casey at?"

The purple alicorn made a gesture towards the door, and replied, "He's taking his turn since Discord's already spent enough time. Why?"

 _###############_

" _Ah, I must admit how much I enjoy these calm and peaceful conversations… don't you agree?"_

Beck, whose mouth was still covered up with duct tape, simply rolled his eyes while Discord used his magic to make a clock appear beside himself.

"Unfortunately, somepony else is about to take my place, so we'll have to continue this at a later date... _but before I leave_ …"

A sly grin appeared on the draconequs' face as he reached out to grab one end of the duct tape, and in a matter of seconds, Discord swiftly removed it, causing Beck to immediately scream out in pain.

" _That_ was for capturing Fluttershy."

The frustrated green pony glared at Discord, and was about to tell him off when a familiar voice said, " _Your time is up, Discord…"_

As Casey began walking into the dungeon, the draconequs replied, "Twilight may not have chosen the option of giving you the death penalty… but she never said I _couldn't_ touch you, so… just know that you're in for something a _lot worse_ than duct tape whenever it's _my_ turn again."

Beck just muttered some words angrily under his breath, and Discord looked over at Casey to say, "Got him all warmed up for ya… enjoy!"

 _Poof!_

Once he was gone, Beck let out a groan, and growled, "I'd rather have had _Pinkie_ be the first pony to _watch_ over me in this place."

Casey didn't give him a response; instead, he just looked at Beck with a facial expression that was full of hatred.

"You know, your girlfriend _should've_ killed me when she had the chance," said Beck, with a small smile. "But going from what happened earlier today, I suppose _you_ wanted the honor of doing that?"

"Oh, you have _no idea_ ," growled Casey, who was trying his best to remain calm. "And you're lucky these bars are keeping me from-"

Beck interrupted him by letting out a chuckle, and saying, "That's _rich_ coming from a pony who doesn't blame Twilight for losing a loved one."

"What happened to my parents was _not her fault_ ," exclaimed Casey, but Beck just shook his head, as if he was missing the big picture.

"So, you can honestly stand there, and tell me that… after realizing your parents were gone… not _once_ did you _ever_ blame your little girlfriend, who didn't even know you, them, me… _my family_ … even existed?"

Instead of answering his question, Casey shook his head, and said, "I'm having someone else come and watch you."

Then, he started to walk away, but stopped after Beck said, "Oh, I get it, then… you're too _soft_ to get angry at her… hell, you're probably too _chicken_ to kill _any_ one, in general… no wonder you didn't say anything back at the-"

"Shut… _up… you son of a *****,_ " exclaimed Casey, who was standing in front of his cell again, and a frown appeared on Beck's face.

"What kind of language is _that_ supposed to be?"

"I learned it from somepony," replied Casey. "And just so you know, I have _no_ problem in killing you… except-"

"- you don't want to see what your girlfriend's reaction would be if she came down here to find out that I died at your hooves," said Beck, who was taunting him, at this point. "Like I said, you're just a _soft_ little pony."

 _Alright, that's it!_ thought Casey, who had heard enough from Beck, but before he could make an attempt to hurt him, the arrival of Starlight caused Casey to stop.

"Twilight wants to see you," said the purple unicorn, who then looked at Beck. "And I don't have a problem placing something _worse_ than duct tape over your mouth."

While Beck became silent, Casey began to leave, but Starlight gave him a concerned look, and asked, "Are you okay?"

" _I…"_ He started to say, but after taking a closer look into his friend's eyes, Casey's anger level quickly went down, and he let out a sigh. "I'll be fine, Star… thanks for asking…"

"Good… now, go talk to Twilight before she gets worried," replied Starlight, and as he left the dungeon, she turned her attention over to Beck, who raised an eyebrow at the young unicorn.

"Oh, please… what in Equestria can _you possibly_ do to me, teacher's pet?"

 _################_

Casey walked into the library to find Twilight reading the book that he'd started on since having his memory restored.

"Find something interesti - _whoa!_ " He started to say, but Twilight suddenly brought him over to stand in front her. "Um, is everythi-"

"Are you possessed?" asked the young alicorn, but it was in a more concerned tone instead of a demanding one.

Casey shook his head, in confusion, and was about to respond when Twilight took a closer look into his eyes.

"Well… they aren't green or red…"

Then, after taking a few steps back, she flipped through the book (which _she_ had actually written), and Casey asked, "Twilight, what are-"

"Looking through the stuff that my other self told me about regarding a… somewhat similar incident," replied the young alicorn. "I just wanted to make sure you're alright."

Casey started to smile at her, and he said, "Trust me, there's _nothing_ inside of my body that's controlling my actions or anything like that… why would you think I was?"

"Because of what happened in Canterlot," replied Twilight. "You _do_ understand why I made that decision, right?"

The smile went away, and became a slight frown as Casey said, "Well, _yes_ … but look at it in my hooves, Twilight… I watched that _pony_ nearly beat you to a _pulp_ … and now, he's going to be living in a cell _underneath_ us?"

"Yes, and I _know_ it doesn't look right," replied the purple alicorn. "But I want him to realize that I'm sorry for the loss of his loved ones, and it's not my fault-"

"Well, _that_ is probably going to take a while," said Casey, rolling his eyes. "And there's no way I would allow you to go down there by-"

Twilight started to frown, and she asked, "What, you don't think I can take care of myself?"

Casey looked at his girlfriend with widened eyes after hearing her say that, and he said, " _Twilight,_ he _almost_ _ **beat**_ _you to…_ do I _have_ to say it again?"

"But that was _after_ he 'drugged' us with whatever was in his dart," pointed out Twilight. "Along with restraining me to a table, and making sure I couldn't use my magic… now, things are different, so… wait, where are you going?"

"I need to be alone for a moment," replied Casey, who felt himself getting upset again since his mind was showing the memories of Beck attacking her, but Twilight grabbed his front left hoof before he could take another step. "I am _not_ possessed, Twilight…"

"Casey…" replied the young alicorn. "I know you're upset, but this _is_ the right thing to do… I mean, what do you think _I_ would have done if it had been _you_ instead of him?"

Remembering the stuff that Beck had said in the dungeon, Casey's frown became deeper, and he said, "Do _not_ compare me to him, Twilight… he obviously _hates_ you, and I lo…"

However, Casey suddenly found himself pausing after realizing what he was about to say, as did Twilight, and he felt his body starting to warm up.

"I… I lo… I… I… uh… I need some air…"

Then, he hurried out of the library as quickly as possible, and Twilight was about to say something when one of the library books started to vibrate.

 _Sunset?_ thought the princess, but after taking it down from the shelf, she learned it was the one that she used to talk with her parallel self, who had asked Twilight if everything was alright.

 _I thought it was… now, I'm not so sure…_

* * *

Now that he was out on the balcony, Casey started to walk back and forth.

" _Stupid, stupid, stupid_ … that was the first time I had to tell her I… _ugh, stupid, stupid - ack!"_

Suddenly, he found himself coughing, and waving his hoof in front of his face. "What the heck… felt like smoke or…"

Then, after he was done coughing, Casey found himself having a flashback to before he'd met Twilight and the others at the Crystal Empire.

 _##############_

 _"What do you have against Twilight and the others, anyway?" Casey cried. "They never did anything to you!"_

 _"Don't you dare talk back to me, slave," yelled Rowan, who was still using Miles' body. "And if I recall, didn't you tell me that her battle with Tirek caused you to lose your parents?"_

 _Casey gulped, and said, "T-that wasn't her fault, though, it was **Tirek** who ripped apart the ground... and besides, she had to save Equestria…"_

 _Rolling his eyes, the hooded pony said, "And, of course, while she gets to stay at a shiny castle, you get the short end of the stick!"_

 ** _KZZZZZTTTT_!**

 _Before Casey could say anything, the sinister pony unleashed his lightning attack on him, and exclaimed, "You told me yourself that you'd wished Twilight would one day know what it felt like to lose someone, yes?"_

" _I… was…" gasped a weakened Casey, and Rowan rolled his eyes._

" _You're just pathetic… and better off sticking to having a crush on Twilight cause you'll never be with a pony like her."_

 _###############_

After his flashback was over, Casey shook his head, and said, "No, no, no… I'm not letting this happen again."

So, a few minutes later, he was inside of his bedroom, and had somehow been able to create a bag full of pills that he knew would help him.

 _I have_ _ **got**_ _to get my watch back_ , thought Casey, who was now dropping a pill in his glass of cold water, which eventually became a dark blue-ish color.

Then, after drinking all of it, he started to feel a little better. "Okay… um… I should _probably_ go back to the library now."

However, instead of finding Twilight, the young pony found himself looking at Pinkie Pie, who said, "Hi, Casey! Whatcha doin'?"

"I was looking for… Twilight… and, um, Pinkie... what exactly is this supposed to be?" asked Casey, looking at what was on the table in front of him.

"A blueprint for my newest party cannon," replied Pinkie. "It should be done by the time we have to start preparing for the Frie- oh, and before I forget, Twilight told me to tell you that she went to talk to her _other self_ , whoever that is…"

* * *

Inside of the "Cutie Map/throne" room, Stardust was having a conversation with Rainbow and Applejack when Twilight entered the room, saying, "Jack… there is, uh, somepony who wants your opinion on something."

Before Stardust could ask who it was, another Twilight stepped into the room, and he began to smile. "Oh, hello, Twilight… _please_ tell my girlfriend that she had no reason to worry about your world being in danger."

"Well… um…" replied Twilight's counterpart, who was looking at the bandages around her chest. "There's actually a _lot_ that you, er, don't know of yet…"

 _Poof!_

Then, to everyone's surprise, Stardust was put inside of an energy bubble, and Applejack asked, "Er, why are you doin' that, sugarcube?"

The two versions of Twilight looked at each other, and Stardust's girlfriend replied, "It's so that he won't… uh… do something he might end up regretting one day."

Stardust let out a laugh, and said, "The _only_ thing I _regret,_ love, is having watched _anything_ that involved _Equestria Girls_ … so, what could be worse than that?"


	16. Still Not Over

**MLP: Seeds of the Past**

 _Chapter 16 - Still Not Over_

 _Author's Note: "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" is owned by DHX Media and Hasbro while Stardust was created by the Warrior of Twilight, and Beck was created by fellow FF writer, Fanfic 920… so please enjoy!_

* * *

 _Stardust's World_

"Wow… I don't think I've _ever_ seen him that upset, Twilight."

"Same here," replied Rainbow, who was agreeing with Applejack. "I don't even know what the heck he's saying."

The two of them, along with Twilight and her other self, were watching Stardust continue to throw a fit in the energy bubble that his girlfriend had placed him in (which, as of a few minutes ago, had also been sound-muffled, for obvious reasons), and that was because he was not exactly pleased with what he'd learned had happen to Casey's Twilight, as well as the other version of Spike, and everyone else at Beck's own hooves.

The only thing that the young alicorn had left out was Rainbow's other self being turned from blue to pink since-

" _ *** %{}`~£+/[*!"**_

Everypony turned their attention back to Stardust, and a confused Applejack asked, "What did he say righ' now?"

" _Hmmmm…_ " said Pinkie, who suddenly appeared from out of nowhere, and was looking up while flipping through the pages of a book that she was holding. "I don't see any of those symbols in here, but I'm _pretty_ sure that he said the word _[BEEP]."_

Then, noticing that they were all looking at her, the pink pony replied, "What? He says that word the most…"

"How the hay did you come across _this_ , Pinkie?" wondered Rainbow, who was now looking through the book after taking it from her.

"I got it because I wanted to see if he'd said all the 'profanity words' that exist in Equestria," replied Pinkie. "And, surprisingly, he's only said around-"

Before she could finish her sentence, Rainbow started to chuckle, and said, "Um, I think you're wrong, Pinkie… I think _[BEEP]_ was the word that he-"

" _Rainbow Dash!"_ scolded Applejack, and after taking it, she added, "You should know better than to say somethin' that Twilight don't like to hear… 'sides, y'all are both wrong… cause Star actually said the word-"

" _O-KAY,_ just _stop_!" cried Twilight, and she used her magic to make the book disappear before any of them could say something else. "It doesn't _matter_ what he said…"

Then, to her counterpart's surprise, she looked over at Stardust, and the two of them just stared at each other, with similiar but also different expressions.

"Um… what's going on?" wondered Casey's girlfriend, who walked over to Applejack.

"They're talkin' to each other inside of here," replied the orange pony, lightly tapping the side of Twilight's head with her hoof. "He's also done it with Rainbow before, but I can't remember if me and him ever did."

"Is it something to do with-"

Rainbow nodded her head, and she said, "His _balance_ powers? Yup, definitely… but, er, he usually does it with just Twilight, and it's actually not that much, anyway."

"How come?"

Pinkie was the next pony to answer her friend's other self. "I think it's cause Stardust doesn't want to, um… how do I say it…"

 _POOF!_

Then, to their surprise, Stardust was released from his bubble, but before he could speak, his girlfriend placed a comforting hoof on her shoulder.

" _Easy, Jack… she's obviously been through a lot."_

It took a while for Stardust to let out a heavy sigh, and after muttering some words to himself, he looked at Twilight's other self. "I… am so sorry to hear what happened… and I swear that if I could go back in time to that day, I would have knocked his damn-"

" _Jack…"_

Stardust closed his mouth, and paused for a moment before he continued to speak. "I'm _very_ relieved to see that you're doing a _lot_ better, and I hope the same is with Spike…"

Casey's girlfriend gave him a thankful smile, and after she nodded her head, he asked, "Where is… _Beck_ … at now again?"

"In the dungeon of my castle," replied the young princess. "And he'll be watched by either me or one of my friends every day until he learns that what happened was not my fault."

After hearing her response, Stardust forced himself not to let out a groan, and with a sigh, he said, "Well… I can't say I'm surprised to hear that… or that _your_ Celestia _again_ showed that-"

" _Jaaaccckkk…"_

"Yes, love, _I know_ … so, if that's what your decision is, Twilight, then I can respect it… is there anything I can do to help?"

Not wanting to make her other self's special somepony again, Twilight shook her head, and replied, "Not right now, Stardust, but I appreciate your offer… and I'll definitely let you know if I ever do need it."

"Glad to hear…" said Stardust, who was now walking out of the room. "Now, if we're all done here, I'm going to find Starlight so that she can help me get rid of this headache I feel coming on, so…"

Once he was gone, Applejack smiled at her friend's counterpart, and said, "Don't be too worried about him, sugarcube… he'll be alright by the end of the day."

"Yeah, totally," replied Rainbow, nodding in agreement. "He's probably just upset because another version of his special somepony got hurt, and he wasn't there to stop… what, what did I say?"

After giving her pegasus friend an unamused expression, Twilight looked at her counterpart, and asked, "Is there anything else you'd like to talk about before you go back home?"

Casey's girlfriend shook her head, and replied, "No, but I should get back so that I can take _my turn_ watching over Beck… bye, everypony…"

The other three ponies gave their friend a goodbye, and once she was gone, Pinkie asked, "Um, so… can I have the book back now?"

Twilight looked at her, and the pink pony replied, "It's _only_ because I want to see if Stardust can say the other remaining…"

* * *

 _Casey's World_

While the light-orange Earth Pony was actually becoming interested in Pinkie's idea for a new party cannon, their discussion was interrupted by the arrival of Twilight via the Crystal Mirror.

"So, how'd it go talking with whoever it was you talked to?" asked Pinkie.

"Fine… I feel a little better now, actually," replied Twilight, and she was about to leave the library when Casey walked up to her.

"Twilight, wait… um, about what happened earlier, I-"

Suddenly, to his surprise, the young alicorn placed a hoof on his muzzle, and said, "It's fine, Casey, don't worry about it… just promise that you can trust me on this."

Just like what happened with Starlight, the love and concern in Twilight's eyes made Casey feel more relaxed, and he nodded his head, which made her move her hoof away. "Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye."

"Well, you didn't _have_ to do that," replied a chuckling Twilight. "But still… thank you…"

Then, as she walked away, Casey looked back at Pinkie, who asked, "So… you're _not_ going to tell her yet?"

"I will when I know it's the _right_ time," replied the young pony, walking back over to his friend, and he let out a sigh.

 _I just hope I'm still able to get another opportunity._

 _###############_

"So, do you still want to keep on talking?" asked Starlight, who was glaring at the imprisoned Beck. "I can still give you something worse than duct tape…"

Even though he had been turned into various random objects almost the whole time she had watched him, Beck replied, "Before you do, teacher's pet, I have a question for _you_ … and that's when are you having the wedding?"

His question immediately made Starlight confused, and she asked, " _Huh_?"

After rolling his eyes, Beck gave her a response. "You know what I mean, Glimmer… the way you two are with each other, I'm surprised that - and _speak of the alicorn_ , look who decided to show up!"

Ignoring the sole prisoner that was in her dungeon, Twilight looked at a now-blushing Starlight, and said, "I can take it from - uh, are you okay?"

The purple unicorn nodded her head, and she replied, "I'm fine, just need to, um… get some air…"

As she watched her friend leave the dungeon, Twilight gave Beck a suspicious look. "What did you say to her?"

"Nothing for you to freak about, princess… and may l say how lovely it is to know that, as your 1st prisoner in this place, I'm getting the royal treatment."

Twilight rolled her eyes as she slid the tray of food that she'd brought with her into Beck's cell, and said, "You're lucky I even _chose_ to give you food in the 1st place."

As he began cutting up part of his meal, the light-green Earth pony looked over at Twilight, saying, "If you're expecting an apology from me, princess, you're wasting your breath."

"I never said I _was_ , Beck," replied the young alicorn. "But don't you think it's time to just let go of-"

"Nothin' doin', _Princess_ ," he muttered, and Twilight let out a huff of disappointment.

 _Well, I guess Casey_ _ **was**_ _right about this being hard… but I'm not giving up._

"Do you want to talk?"

Beck looked at her with an unamused expression, and said, "What's there to talk about? My parents, my best friend, my wife, my _SON_... they were innocent... and they were victims of an accident that _you_ caused while trying to _'save all of Equestria_ ' from Tirek."

The young alicorn remained silent, and found herself feeling a little bit of guilt, even though everyone else had told Twilight (and she, herself, knew) that it was not her fault.

"I _wanted_ to forgive you, you know…" said Beck, which caused Twilight to look up, slightly shocked.

* * *

 _Flashback_

The rain gently fell over the cemetery… though, Beck didn't really care, and neither did Mr. and Mrs. Cake, who had stayed with Beck when he lingered at the graves of his family and Night Light, who, to Beck's delight and heartbreak, had wanted to have been buried next to him.

However, seeing as how he wasn't dead, and he wanted to be buried next to Twinkle, an open space lied between her headstone and Night Light's.

It had been two full weeks since Tirek's catastrophic attack, and Ponyville had already managed to be restored to it's former glory… though it's not like Beck cared, considering this fortnight had been the worst of his entire life.

"Are you sure you'll be okay?" Mrs. Cake checked.

"Pinkie said she could watch the foals for as long as we needed," Mr. Cake added. "We could stay..."

His eyes not straying away from the 5 headstones, Beck shook his head.

"Don't worry about me, I'll be fine," he said solemnly. "Go. Be with your foals."

The Cakes looked to each other, then back to Beck, before taking their leave.

"Chiffon! Carrot!" The Cakes looked back.

" _Thank you… for… your concern..._ " Beck said, eyes still trained in the headstones, and unable to find the right words to say.

For a few minutes after they had left, Beck remained silent until he was finally able to softly cry without anyone present.

Then, after letting out a sigh, he was able to bring up the courage to speak fully.

" _I'm so sorry, everyone_ ," Beck whispered. _"You shouldn't be here right now. Especially you, Carl."_

He then looked to his left, the spire of the new Ponyville Castle rising above the trees.

 _It's been two weeks, and she hasn't even said a word_ , he thought to himself, with a frown on his face. _It's like she doesn't even care. I mean, why should she? Equestria is saved, she gets a residential upgrade, and still has all her friends…_

Then, Beck scoffed, and muttered, "She doesn't even know what TRUE LOSS is."

As he continued to talk, anger began to seep into Beck's thoughts.

" _It's all her fault you're all here_ ," Beck said, turning back to the headstones. A scowl emerged on his face.

" _If she weren't so reckless, you'd all be still alive right now. Yet, here we are… and she doesn't even care. I want to forgive her, but_..." the black maned stallion said.

If earth ponies had fists, Beck would be clenching then right now.

He sighed in defeat, feeling like he had no other option. "I promise you, she _won't_ go unpunished. **No** pony messes with my family and gets away with it… _royalty_ or not."

He approached the gravestone of his family members, planting a kiss on top of each of them, before giving a good bump to Night Light's.

"I promise... you _all will be avenged_. I love you all." Beck turned around, and trotted through the drizzling rain, back to his newly repaired, yet empty, home. He had a lot of work to do.

* * *

 _ **Present**_

As Twilight remained quiet, Beck simply stared at her while continuing to speak.

"That's when I realized you needed to be taught a lesson. You needed to learn what it was like to have everything taken away from you... but not just that. I wanted to see you suffer, beg for mercy, or at least... apologize...

"At least _then_ , I'd know that I avenged them... that the one that took them was getting her dues for what she did... but look where that got me," Beck finished, gesturing to his cell.

Then, before she could say anything else, the light-green Earth Pony added, with a sinister look in his eyes, "Do not think for one second, princess, that I don't regret what I did to you back in my hideout… it was something you _most definitely_ deserved."

A teary-eyed Twilight was about to respond when, to their surprise, Pinkie made her way into the dungeon. "Is it my turn now? Cause if not, I could go back up to-"

"No, don't worry, Pinkie, I think I've spent enough time here anyway," replied Twilight, and she hurried out of the dungeon before something worse could have happened.

Once the alicorn princess was gone, Pinkie and Beck looked at each other, with the sinister pony muttering to himself, "How I wish I still had one of my darts with me…"

* * *

" _Um… any reason why we're in the Everfree Forest?"_ wondered Anti-Applejack, who was looking around the area.

"It's like I said, AJ," replied Evil Stardust, who was also speaking to the rest of his friends. "We'll start by splitting up in order to get all of the Mane 6 into Twilight's castle, and once that's all said and done, we'll continue to work on getting Casey out of the picture so that he won't fuse with Starcade-"

However, he found himself being interrupted by Anti-Pinkie, who asked, "Hey, how come Midnight isn't with us?"

"Because she's making sure that Sunset Shimmer doesn't escape from our world," replied Stardust's evil self. "And I doubt any one will be looking for her, so… for the rest of us…"

Then, a sinister smile appeared on his face.

"... it's time for _us_ to have our revenge!"


	17. Seperate Ways

**MLP: Seeds of the Past**

 _ **Chapter 17 - Seperate Ways**_

 _ **Author's Note:**_ _"My Little Pony" belongs to Hasbro, Stardust Balance was created by the Warrior of Twilight, and FanficFan920 - who helped me out with some of this chapter - is the creator of Beck._

 _[Stardust] Still can't believe_ _ **he**_ _has to be in here now._

 _[Beck] Oh, like you're someone that a person or pony would sit by this whole time._

 _[Stardust]_ _ **Please**_ **let me take care of him!**

 _[Me] Just be_ _ **patient,**_ _alright? Now, for everyone else, I will also like to apologize for any OOC moments that show up in the story, so… no, Star, no, you_ _ **put**_ _that chainsaw down right **now**!_

* * *

As Evil Stardust walked through the streets of Ponyville, all he could think about was how amazing it would feel once his revenge had been completed...

… _and until my counterpart is in far too many pieces to count,_ thought the dark gold pony, whose smile grew once Twilight's castle was in his sight, and he stood still. _Now I just need to-_

" _Hey, Star!"_ cried Anti-Pinkie, causing him to almost jump in surprise. " _Wait for us!"_

The rest of his friends came up to the young pony, who was now confused, and he said, "I thought I _told_ you five to get your counterparts to come to the castle."

Anti-Rainbow gestured towards the pink pony, and replied, "We were _going_ to, Star, but she had one of her _sensing_ things, and told us that they're all inside already."

" _Seriously?"_ Evil Stardust looked back at the crystal-made castle, and a sly grin appeared on his face. "Well, then, _how convienent_ …"

* * *

 _The Library_

" _This isn't going to hurt, right?"_ asked Rainbow Dash, who was currently standing inside of a glass-like containment, while Twilight was busy writing out scientific stuff on her notepad.

"Nope… according to my calculations, you'll only be surrounded by pink-colored smoke for a quick minute, and once it goes away, your fur color should be back to its original blue."

Rainbow nodded her head, and replied, " _Awesome_! Let's get this thing going!"

As Twilight began to start the color-restoration process, the rest of their friends (except for Pinkie) watched what was going on from a few feet away.

"Aw, _shucks_ , Rainbow, I was _just_ gettin' used to ya bein' a pink pegasus," teased a smirking Applejack, and said pony just rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, well, once this is all done and over with, I'm going to be the color that I am _supposed_ to be, so… _brrrrr…_ you _could_ _have_ warned me about it being cold in here, Twilight."

The young alicorn gave her friend an apologetic smile, and a chuckling Casey replied, "Just _chillax_ , Rainbow… plus, it'll only be for a minute or two anyway."

As the containment began to fill up with the pink-colored smoke, Rainbow gave her friend a half-eyelids-closed expression, and said, " _Ha ha, very funny_."

Then, once it was completely filled up to the point where Rainbow could not even be seen, everyone waited for the minute to pass by, hoping that-

" _Ooh, what's that supposed to be_?"

An amused Twilight let out a sigh, and she replied, "I'm trying to give Rainbow her original fur color ba… um… Pinkie?"

"Yeah?" replied the pink pony.

"If _you're_ standing here right now, then who is watching Beck down in the dungeon?" asked Twilight, but right before Pinkie could answer the question, a familiar voice came from out of nowhere.

" _Well, well… it's been a_ _ **long**_ _time since we first met, Princess Twilight."_

Standing in the doorway of the room was Evil Stardust, flashing a toothy grin at the young princess, and a surprised Twilight said, "B-but I thought Kronos-"

Evil Stardust barked out a laugh, and pulled out the Time Staff from underneath his cloak, saying, "You can't keep somepony like me down forever, princess… oh, and by the way…"

He took out another object, and tossed it over at Casey. "I don't really have any more _use_ for this."

Recognizing it at his special watch, the light-orange pony quickly went over to the nearby table so that he could place the pills he'd created in one of its compartments while the others looked at Evil Stardust in confusion.

"Um, why is _he_ here?" said Starlight, who was now frowning at the Earth Pony.

Before Evil Stardust could respond to her, Casey turned back around, and replied, "First of all, thanks for upgrading my watch… second, I guess you being here is because you had enough tea parties?"

The sinister pony's smile quickly became a scowl, and his eyes started shining with rage.

" _You have_ _ **no idea**_ _what it's like to be in a place like that… and if it wasn't for you fusing with my other self-"_

Suddenly, an interrupting Pinkie said, " _Ohhhh_ , now I get it! This is a mean version of Stardust, and the rest of the ponies behind him are mean versions of _us_ … well, except for Starlight, but-"

" _Hey, what the heck is… going on here…"_ said a confused Rainbow, who was stepping out of the containment with her fur color back to normal. "Um, Twilight, why am I seeing double-"

" _Will you all stop [BEEP]-ing preventing me from talking?"_ growled an annoyed Evil Stardust, who was now joined by his group of friends. "Now, where was I? Ah, yes…"

 _WHAM!_

To everypony's surprise (except for the evil ones), Evil Stardust fired an energy blast from the staff that sent Casey crashing into the nearest bookcase, which soon fell on top of him after he landed on the ground.

"Not exactly a _wall_ , but good enough, I suppose," said the young pony, while Casey's friends quickly went over to help him. "And don't _even_ think about using your magic on me, you two…"

As she and Starlight stopped their horns from glowing, Twilight asked, "What is it that you _want?_ Your other self isn't here."

"I think I'm _aware_ of that, princess," replied Evil Stardust. "Which is why, in the meantime, I think I'll just sit back and enjoy the fun."

Then, as he moved away to the side, the Anti-Mane 5 ponies began walking over to their counterparts, with thoughts of fighting and hurting them… until Casey cried, " _Wait..._ leave my friends out of this, and fight me instead!"

While the Anti-Mane 5 stopped moving, Evil Stardust just looked at the young pony, and then, he started to laugh.

" _You_ think you could defeat _me_? _Please_ … I sent you to the damn _hospital_ , kid, and if it wasn't for my other self deciding to make a DBZ move, you wouldn't even _be alive_ right now."

And, with a scoff, Evil Stardust added, "In fact, you're not even _worth_ fighting… oh, and because you _interrupted_ my fun time, I'm about to do to you what I did to Sunse - _aaaaggghh!_ "

What happened next all took place in under a minute… Starlight fired a magical blast at Evil Stardust and the rest of his friends while Twilight cried, " _Pinkie, hit the button on the World Travel Machine!_ "

" _Which one? Do you mean the big red one that you said I should_ _ **never, ever, ever, EVER-**_ _"_

" _Pinkie!"_

" _You got it, Twilight!"_

 _ **Whoosh!**_

Once Pinkie had pressed the button, the Crystal Mirror turned on, except it was now making a rather powerful vacuum-like sound, and all of the Mane 6, along with Starlight and Casey, felt themselves rising up into the air.

" _Twi, what in all of Equestria are you tryin' to-"_ cried Applejack, but she was cut off after finding herself being sucked into the mirror, along with everypony else.

" _Nice to finally meet you, Evil Version of Stardust!"_ yelled Pinkie, who was the last pony to leave, and once they were all gone, the sinister pony began making sounds of frustration while his friends wondered where they would end up at.

* * *

 _[Stardust's World]_

As the gold pony continued to read a book inside of the library, his girlfriend appeared at the doorway, and she asked, "How are you feeling, Jack?"

"A lot better than I was a few hours ago," replied Stardust, who was now walking over to the nearest bookshelf. "And I'm hoping that now, the rest of today will be just me enjoying this-"

 _You might want to move out of the way, Jack._

Before the young pony could respond to his mentor, the Crystal Mirror started to glow, and in a matter of seconds, multiple ponies started falling straight out of it, much to Twilight's surprise.

" _Can we try that again?"_ asked Pinkie, as she started to stand up.

"I think I'm good with _just the one time,_ sugarcube _,"_ muttered Applejack, who was now trying to fixher Stetson hat from looking crumpled up.

As for Stardust, he was being helped up to his feet by Casey, who gave him an apologetic smile. "Um… _surprise_?"

The pony who represented balance let out a sigh, and he replied, "I stopped being surprised by stuff like this a long time ago, Casey… oh, here, let me help you up."

Once Starlight was standing up, she took one look at Stardust, and replied, in a dry tone, "Thanks… I guess."

As she walked away, Stardust looked back at Casey, and asked, "I just helped her up to her hooves. Why is she...?"

"I dunno, beats me…" said Casey, giving his friend a shrug, and then, he realized something that made him groan while placing a hoof on his forehead.

"Pinkie… _please_ tell me you had _somepony_ take your place in watching over Beck…"

Everyone turned their attention to the pink pony, who sheepishly replied, "Uh… well, I _was_ going to, but then I got distracted after seeing what Twilight was doing to Rainbow Dash-"

"Just _forget_ it, Pinkie," said a visibly upset Casey, and he began walking over to Twilight. "See, _this_ is why I _told you_ that getting _rid_ of him was the better option!"

"Casey, you know I'm not able to-"

"Will you _stop_ talking like a princess, and talk as your own _self_?" interrupted Casey. "See, now it's going to be _your_ fault if he ends up doing something _worse_ than what he did to you because you couldn't bring yourself to give him the _death sentence_."

Before Twilight could try defending herself, a concerned Starlight walked up to him, and said, "Casey, please, just calm down before-"

" _Shut… it… Star_ …" growled Casey. "And I don't need help from a former _bad pony_ , so just-"

"Hey, she's only trying to _help you_ ," exclaimed Rainbow, but that just made him even more upset.

"Dash, I swear to Celestia that I'll find a way to make you _permantly_ pink if you don't shut-"

Then, a worried Twilight walked up to him, and said, "Casey, you _promised_ that you would-"

"I _know_ what I did, Twilight or… Star's Twilight… _whoever you are_ ," yelled Casey, now pointing a hoof at her. "But I realize now that I can't because you chose to let him _live_ instead of making sure he _got_ what he rightfully deserved, so like I said, _princess…_ it is _all_ _ **your fault**_."

He then walked out of the room before anyone could say something else, and a guilty-looking Twilight was now lowering her head in sadness, but then, she felt a pony's hoof raise her head back up, which turned out to be one of Stardust's hooves.

"You and I _both_ know that you made the _right decision_ , Twilight, and whatever happened was not your fault," said the human-turned-pony, giving her a comforting smile. "In the meantime, allow me to deal with-"

However, Twilight suddenly shook her head, and she said, _"_ Thank you… Stardust… but there's no need for that… because I know now what I have to do."

* * *

After finishing his special drink, and setting the empty glass on the nearby table, Casey walked out onto the balcony, where he began pacing back and forth while making sounds of frustration.

" _Stupid… stupid… stupid…"_

" _Casey?"_

The young pony stopped moving, and turned around to look at his girlfriend, who was also a little teary-eyed.

"Okay, Twilight, look, I'm sorry I yelled, but-"

Then, he immediately stopped talking after the alicorn used her magic to place a familiar accessory in his hooves. It was the other turtledove necklace that he'd seen her put on the first day they'd met.

"Twilight, wait, I didn't mean to…"

"I'm sorry, Casey, but… maybe this is what needs to happen right now," said a saddened Twilight. "I mean… if making a simple promise, or… not trusting me with the decision that I made, then…"

Casey quickly began to shake his head, and replied, "Okay, I get it, I screwed up, but let me just apologize or… Twilight, I… I lo…"

Unfortunately, he still couldn't find himself able to say how he felt about her.

"I… I… please, just let me…"

Twilight shook her head, and she continued walking away while Casey was left alone with the necklace in his hooves.

 **Insert "What a Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong**

Then, once he realized what had happened, a wave of sadness washed over the young pony, and he found himself making some adjustments to his watch.

 _I see trees of green, red roses too  
I see them bloom for me and you_

"If that's what she wants… then, so be it…"

 _And I think to myself what a wonderful world_

Then, after pressing a small button on the side of his watch, a white aura surrounded Casey's entire body, and he disappeared in a quick flash of bright light.

I see skies of blue and clouds of white  
The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night

Once he was gone, Twilight came back out a moment later, and she sadly lowered her head… but brought it up after hearing a familiar voice ask, "Need somepony to talk to?"

"Yeah…. I think I do, Star…"

 _And I think to myself what a wonderful world_

As for Casey, he quickly realized that he was in the world that Sunset Shimmer lived in (since he was standing on two legs), but for some reason, it felt a little different.

 _I see friends shaking hands saying how do you do  
They're really saying I love you_

"Probably because it's raining…" muttered Casey, who was now slowly starting to get soaked.

He looked down at the turtledove necklace that was still in one of his hands, and Casey found himself remembering what Rowan had told him multiple times.

" _Twilight would never want to be with a pony like you_."

 _HONK-HONK!_

 _SPLASH!_

After getting almost drenched in water by a passing semi-truck, Casey started to cough a few times before saying, "Well, that is _just_ wonderful, isn't it?"

 _And I think to myself what a wonderful world_

Then, he found himself turning around to see what he was standing in front of, and remembering what he learned about these places from Stardust, Casey figured out that it as a bar.

"Maybe there's someone in there I can talk to about… everything…" He said, before the young teenager decided to walk inside. "Not like anything worse could happen now."

 _Yes I think to myself what a wonderful world_

* * *

"Don't you think we should go after them, Stardust?" wondered Anti-Rainbow, a few minutes after the others had went into the Crystal Mirror.

Evil Stardust rolled his eyes, and replied, "No, Crash... the last time we tried that, I ended up spending DAYS in a literal hell... we need to find a way to get Star-"

However, before he could finish explaining his plan, Anti-Pinkie came into the room, and she said, "I can sense another pony in the castle... the dungeon, to be exact..."

"Huh? Who could they have down there?"

After having felt relieved that Pinkie had gone away, Beck suddenly sighed, thinking about what Twilight said. Would this really have been what they wanted?

' _No_ ,' Beck thought. ' _She's only doing this to save her own hide… Ugh! Once I get out of here, they are going to know the true feeling of pain and loss.'_

Just then, the door to the dungeon opened and collided with the wall, creating a very loud noise.

"Oh joy, I wonder who's going to be my babysitter this time," Beck said sarcastically.

However, once he laid eyes on Evil Stardust, a look of smug intrigue appeared on his face, "Stardust Balance, we meet at last. I take it you're about as enraged as your friend?"

"Sorry, _[BEEP]_ , but I believe you have me confused with my goodie-two-shoes counterpart… I'm the evil and _more_ better one," Evil Stardust explained. "Now just who in the hell are you?"

A look of mild surprise crossed Beck's face. There was a dark counterpart of the golden earth pony from another dimension?

"The name's Beck," replied the light-green pony. "So, what's an evil equine like yourself doing down here?"

"One of my associates sensed a presence down here and I decided to see who it was," Evil Stardust explained. "But I didn't take Twilight was the imprisoning type. What're ya in for?"

"Well, in the words of Princess Celestia, I ' _captured several innocent ponies, as well as a young dragon, caused property damage to the castle at the Crystal Empire, severely harmed many of the guards both here and at the Crystal Empire, forcibly changed Rainbow Dash's coat from blue to pink, tried to permanently end Spike's life by a poisonous dart AND committed acts of brutality against Princess Twilight Sparkle, along with her special somepony'..._

"So, basically I pony-napped a lot of ponies, hurting several in the process, almost killed Spike, brought both Twilight and Casey to death's door, _AND_ played a little joke on Rainbow Dash."

It was now Evil Stardust's turn to have a look of mild surprise. This stallion nearly defeated The Mane Six and Casey, all on his own.

"[BEEP]." Was all Evil Stardust could say.

"Yep, pretty much sums it up. Casey wanted me dead, but Princess Friendship thinks she can 'reform' me," Beck chuckled. "Like that could happen. Twilight Sparkle took away everything I held dear, so if she thinks that some speech is gonna absolve her from any guilt, she's got another thing coming."

It was then that Evil Stardust had an idea. An awful, terrible idea.

"Well, seems to me that we have a common enemy."

Beck remained quiet, for a moment, "So it seems."

"You know, me and my group are about to get our own revenge on my counterpart and _his_ friends… Casey's more of a bonus, though... you care to join us?"

Beck mulled the offer over, though there was no doubt on what he was going to respond.

"I'm in," he accepted. "On one condition, _Casey's_ special somepony remains alive. Death is too good for her, so I want her to suffer just as I had. We clear?"

 _'I like the way he thinks,'_ Evil Stardust thought.

"Crystal," the evil doppelgänger replied. "Now, you may want to back away." Beck obliged.

Evil Stardust raised his staff, then brought back to the ground with a thump. Once this occurred, a red light began forming at the top of the object. A few seconds later, the light disappeared, but not before it started a laser-like beam of magic that destroyed the lock on Beck's cell door.

Beck simply pushed open the door as he exited the cell. "Thank you…"

"Don't mention it. Us villains have to stick together," Evil Stardust said before the two shared a hoofshake in acquaintanceship.

"Shall we?" Beck said, as the two made their way out of the dungeon.


	18. Caught Up

**MLP: Seeds of the Past**

 _Chapter 18 - Caught Up_

 _Author's Note:_ "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" belongs to DHX Media and Hasbro while Stardust Balance was created by the Warrior of Twilight, and Beck was made by FanficFan920, who helped me with part of this chapter.

* * *

 _Five hours later_

"... and that's why I'm here," said Casey, who was still looking at the turtledove necklace in one of his hands. "Oh, and, uh, I'm done with the water drinks now."

The bartender nodded his head, and as he walked away with the empty glass, Casey let out a sigh in sadness, deeply regretting the mistakes that he had made.

"No offense, man… but I think you're kind of an idiot."

He looked over to the person sitting a few seats down from him, and asked, "Uh… why would you tell me that?"

Jack shrugged his shoulders, and said, "Just giving an honest opinion here, Casey… and it's that I think you're being a bit of an idiot if you believed your girlfriend would make any other decision regarding Beck's fate. Don't you know her well enough at this point?"

Before Casey could answer him, the bartender returned to hand the young man another soda pop bottle. "So, what kind of story do _you_ have, son?"

After taking a swift drink of his beverage, Jack replied, "Well, earlier this morning, I was having a meal date with my girlfriend-"

"Oh, yeah, now I remember seeing you… you're with that one young lady," said the bartender, while preparing another customer's drink. "Sunset… uh… Glimmer, right?"

Jack let out a sigh, and he replied, "Sunset _Shimmer_ , but yes, that's her. Anyway, our date got interrupted by this damn psychopath who ended up taking her away after knocking me into the… kitchen… wait a minute…"

A realization entered Jack's mind as he remembered certain parts of Casey's story, and the young man asked, "Does _Evil Stardust_ have a scar over one of his eyes?"

"Yeah, but why would…" Casey started to say, but then, he found himself remembering something that the evil pony had said back in the library after returning his wristwatch.

 _I'm about to do to you what I did to Sunset Shimmer._

The two of them shared a look with each other, knowing what the person in front of him was thinking about, and Jack asked, "Can your, um, special wristwatch take you to pretty much anywhere you could possibly go?"

Looking at the device around his wrist, Casey replied, "Well, only to places that it's been at already, and I never… _ohhhhhh_ …"

"Yup, exactly," said Jack, and he placed a few dollar bills on the countertop before gesturing to the exit. "Come on, let's go pay one of my friends a visit…"

Nodding his head, Casey began to follow him out of the bar, but not before giving the bartender a thankful smile. "Thanks for listening, sir."

"No problem, son," replied the elderly gentleman. "Good luck with your special someone."

Once Casey and Jack were outside (and, thankfully, it was no longer raining), the pony-turned-human asked, "So, where are we going?"

"To see the only person I know that can help us figure out where… well, isn't that sweet," said Jack, stopping for a moment to observe what was happening between a young couple that stood by a beautiful water fountain across the street.

Casey did the same, and a look of confusion appeared on his face. "What's going on?"

"He's getting down on one knee, and basically asking his girlfriend to be with him for the rest of their lives," explained Jack. "And judging from their affectionate kissing, she gave him the right answer."

As they watched the loving couple run off to presumably celebrate, Casey asked, "Is that what you did with Sunset?"

"Er… well, no…" replied Jack, who now had a sheepish expression. "We've only been together for a few months, anyway… so we, um, haven't exactly reached that point yet."

After hearing his new friend say that, an idea popped into Casey's head, and a small smile appeared on his face.

"Hey, Jack… do you think you could help me out with something important?"

"I'll do what I can," replied Jack, as they resumed sprinting to their destination. "But it'll be while my friend is going through your special watch."

Casey nodded in response, and asked, "Who are we seeing again?"

* * *

 _Stardust's World_

"So, how have you been, Twilight?" asked a curious Pinkie. "The last time I saw you was when I had that super awesome save-the-multiple-worlds party back at the end of the first story."

Before Stardust's girlfriend could respond to her question, the gold pony walked back in to the library, along with Twilight's counterpart, but to everypony else's surprise, there was no sign of Casey making his return.

"What happened? Where's Casey?" asked a concerned Starlight.

As Stardust explained to Twilight what happened telepathically, her counterpart replied, in a sad tone, "I told him it might be best if we… took a break from each other… and now he's gone…"

"Gone? Gone where?"

Not wanting his girlfriend's counterpart to feel more upset, Stardust replied, "We're not exactly sure, but I have a good feeling that it's some place where he needs to be right now… so, in the meanti - uh, Pinkie?"

While Starlight started to frown at Stardust, Pinkie suddenly walked right up to him, and looked at him up and down several times.

" _Hmmmm…_ which Stardust are you again?"

 _You can't be serious,_ thought the gold pony, while Twilight gave her friend's counterpart a confusing look.

"Why would you ask that?"

Pinkie responded by giving the couple a shrug, and said, "I'm just curious, is all… I mean, I _have_ seen almost _ten_ versions of Stardust. You two remember, right?"

"I don't think them or _any of us_ know just what in the hay you're talkin' about, sugarcube," replied Applejack. "Be a little more specific."

Pinkie tapped her chin with a single hoof, and said, "Well, to sum up almost 40 chapters into one paragraph… there's a _lot_ of worlds where Stardust is paired up with another pony… me, Fluttershy, you, Rainbow, Rarity, Cadence... Starlight, Luna, Human Twilight, Sunset Shimmer, that one baker pony from Starlight's old village who made us those terrible muffins the first time we met her because Starlight took away her Cutie Mark… Daring Do, Trixie-"

"Trust me, Pinkie, he's the _actual_ Stardust Balance," interrupted Twilight, who was now feeling a little annoyed, and Pinkie's face had an apologetic expression.

"Oops, sorry, I forgot that you don't like to remember that stuff since you had to see him kiss almost all of them in order to - yup, the way your face is right now is _exactly_ how it was when…"

Before she could continue her monologue, Rainbow said, "Uh, Pinkie, we get it, he's _the_ Stardust… so, now that we know who you are, shouldn't we get Casey back first _before_ we take on Evil You, Evil Us… and, at this point, Beck?"

"Forgive me if this sounds rude, but I'm _positive_ that I'll be able to handle Beck and Anti-Me without his help," replied Stardust. "A _lot_ of stuff has happened since Anti-Me showed up here, and I've been meaning to teach Beck a lesson for-"

Before he could continue speaking, Applejack asked, "Hold up for a minute… no offense, Star, but how come almost everypony that you and Casey dealt with these past few months want to pretty much beat the livin' daylights outta you?"

"I honestly have _no idea_ ," he replied, giving a small shrug. "But at this point, I'm pretty much used to it… anyway, yeah, Casey's fine where-"

" _Fine_? No, he is _not_ fine, Stardust," interrupted Starlight, who was still giving him an annoyed look. "As someone who's apparently spent a _lot of time_ with him, I figured you'd have a different response."

A frown appeared on the young pony's face, and he said, "Look, Starlight, you have no idea what my counterpart is capable of… you weren't there to see what he did to me, my friends, and-"

"Yeah, but I _know_ what happened to Casey _after_ I saw Twilight bring him back to our world _because_ of what Evil You did," replied the purple unicorn, now glaring at Stardust with anger. "And now that I think about it… just what _kind_ of friend are you?"

 _What is her_ _ **deal**_ _?_ thought Stardust, and he said, "I think you're upset at the wrong pony."

"No, I am _not_ …" exclaimed Starlight. "If you're his friend, then where _were_ you during that time Beck captured all of us? Or when Casey and Twilight were in the hospital?"

While Stardust kept quiet for a moment, Pinkie said, "Wow, Starlight… you _reaalllyy_ don't like him, do you?"

Ignoring her friend's question, Starlight raised her eyebrow at Stardust, waiting for his answer.

"Well? What were you doing over here that stopped you from coming to our world?"

 _Starswirl, you mind helpin' me with this one?_ thought Stardust.

 _Is it that hard for you to admit the truth, Jack?_ responded his mentor.

However, before Stardust could think of anything else, Twilight said, "I know you're worried about him, Starlight, but Jack is right… things could get a _lot worse_ in just a matter of seconds now that Evil Stardust and Beck are presumably working together… and I promise you that looking for Casey will be the first thing we'll all do once those two - and Evil Stardust's friends - are taken care of… alright?"

Although she continued to glare at Stardust for another moment, Starlight eventually lowered her anger, and gave his girlfriend a small nod.

"Good…" said Twilight, while Stardust was trying to figure out why Starlight's counterpart apparently disliked him so much.

* * *

 _Anti-Equestria_

Having grown bored of staying in the world they'd traveled to, the Anti-Mane 5 had decided to return to their own castle, and after an hour of waiting, a portal appeared in the throne room, with Evil Stardust and Beck stepping out.

"Well, it's about _[BEEP]-in_ time you came back here," said Anti-Rainbow, whose sly smile went away after noticing her friend's companion. "Um, who is _this_ new pony?"

Evil Stardust chuckled, and replied, "You can all stand down, mates. We have a new ally."

"Greetings. The name's Beck. I take it you five are the Dark counterparts of the Elements of Harmony?" Beck asked.

Anti-Rainbow scoffed, and laid back against her throne, saying, "If by _dark,_ you mean _better_ , than that's us alright… and, er, why is _he_ on our side now?"

"Because he took down the Mane 6 _and_ the other three princesses… even _Discord_ … all on his own," replied Stardust's counterpart. "So I expect you all to show him _some_ respect. Got it?"

All five of his friends nodded their heads as Evil Stardust walked over to the Cutie Map, and Beck cleared his throat before speaking again.

"Well, now that we all know each other, what's the plan?"

A sly grin appeared on the face of Evil Stardust,now sitting in Twilight's chair, and he replied, "I'm glad you asked, Beck, 'cause you see…"

 _(Begin "That's How I'll Get Her" from the Wander Over Yonder episode "My Fair Hatey")_

 _I've done extensive research_

 _On our common enemies_

With the Time Staff in his hooves, Evil Stardust created a memory portal that was now floating over the table, showing past memories of both Casey and Stardust.

 _You see, their secret weapon_

 _Is their little fusion dealie_

The portal was now showing the creation of Starcade, and a scowl appeared on Evil Stardust's face.

 _So we'll get Casey removed from this little situation_

 _Until_ _there's no one left to stop us from conquering this nation_

 _With Casey gone, we'll have a pawn  
to use on them, it's such a gem!_

 _Watch their forces crumble_

 _Before my strategic eye!_

 _That's how we'll get 'em_

(Anti-Mane 5: _how we'll get 'em_!)

 _That's how we'll get 'em!_

 _We'll capture all those ponies and make them pay!_

 _That's how we'll get 'em_

 _(How we'll get 'em!)_

 _That's how we'll get 'em_

 _Once we get 'em_ , _Stardust Balance_

 _Will finally be no more!_

"Did you just sing that?" Beck asked, confused.

"What?! _[BEEP]_ no!" Evil Stardust stammered. "Don't be ridiculous!"

"Well, it's a good plan. It's just, uh..." Beck tried to find the right words as he gazed at the sung-about plan before him.

"' _Just uh...' 'Just uh...'_ what?"

Beck rolled his eyes before he turned to face Evil Stardust, and began his own verse.

 _It's nothing, kid_

 _This all sounds great_

 _It really is quite charming_.

 _You're just forgetting, I dunno_ …

 _His special [BEEP]ing somepony_

The portal started showing past memories of Stardust and his girlfriend, which caused Evil Stardust's smile to disappear.

 _You clearly put some thought into_

 _Your big old plan to get 'em,_  
 _But how you gonna pull it off_

 _With Twilight in the picture?_

 _Instead of mass hysteria,_

 _she'll punt ya cross Equestria!_

 _With the way these things end_

 _How can't you see you will never get 'em?_

(Evil Stardust: Yeah, we'll get 'em.)

 _You'll never get 'em_

 _Your wits alone won't win this interdimensional war_

 _You'll never get 'em!_ (Sure, I'll get 'em!)

 _You'll never get 'em_

 _'Cause they're better!_

 _Y'all go in there_

 _And you will be no more!_

"Okay, okay, you definitely sang that last part," Evil Stardust pointed out.

"Yeah, well, so did you!" Beck countered. "I was only followin' your lead. However, in all seriousness. I took notice to how your prior plans involved you going easy on all of Twilight's various selves. Why?"

Evil Stardust hesitated, for a moment, before he grudgingly replied, "It's in my _damn DNA_ to not hurt any version of Twilight Sparkle _or_ EG Twilight… I'm just glad _he_ doesn't know that about me yet."

"Alright, well, if that's how you feel, how about this," Beck offered. "Leave all the Twilights to _me_. That way, you can focus on your little counterpart and I get my revenge. Everyone's satisfied."

Evil Stardust mulled Beck's thoughts over for a second, before an evil smile adorned his face, indicating his response.

"Alright, I'm game. Any objections?" He asked the rest of the Anti-Mane 5, and they all shook their heads.

" _Excellent_ ," Beck said, with an evil smile of his own, before all seven malevolent ponies sang in unison.

 _That's how we'll get 'em!_

 _That's how we'll get 'em!_

 _Once we get 'em…_

 _[Evil Stardust/Beck]_  
 _Stardust Balance/Twilight Sparkle_

 _Will finally be… no... mooooooooooooooooooooooorrre!_

Then, both of the Earth Ponies nodded their heads, and glared at each other. " _Great! But no singing!_ "

 _WHAM!_

Suddenly, the room's doors were pushed open by an irritated Midnight, who asked, "Who in Equestria is _singing_?"

" _They are!"_ exclaimed the rest of the Anti-Mane 6, who each pointed their hooves at Evil Stardust and a now-smirking Beck.

"So, _this_ must be the dark version of Princess Twilight… not much of a difference, though, I was honestly expecting to see you-"

 _Whoosh!_

In a matter of seconds, Midnight's body became that of how her counterpart was while trying to figure out the meaning of _Pinkie sense_ , but she looked a _lot_ more menacing and dangerous.

" _Never… say that name…_ _ **again…**_ _"_ growled Midnight, and Beck quickly nodded his head.

" _God_ , I love it when she does that," said Evil Stardust, who was looking at his girlfriend with love and admiration.

* * *

After making a quick stop at the jewelry store, Casey and Jack approached the house of whoever the young man's friend was, and after Jack knocked on the door, Casey asked, "So, is this where Pinkie lives?"

Jack let out a chuckle, and shook his head before asking, "Why do you think Pinkie would be the friend that I talked about?"

"Um… I try not to question stuff when it comes to her," replied Casey. "And plus, who else-"

Then, the front door opened, revealing a smiling Sci-Twi (the EG version of Twilight), and a sheepish look appeared on Casey's face as he said, "Oh, right… _that_ makes more sense."

"Hi, Jack," greeted the former Crystal Prep student. "Who's your new friend?"

"This is Casey," replied the young man. "And, um, the two of us could _really_ use your help right now…"


	19. Working Together, Part 1

**MLP: Seeds of the Past**

 _Chapter 19 - Working Together, Part 1_

 _Author's Note: "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" belongs to DHX Media and Hasbro, while I own everything else but Stardust Balance and Beck, who were created by the Warrior of Twilight and FanficFan920… hey, you two better_ _ **knock it off**_ _before I-_

 _ ***Wham!***_

 _[Stardust] Ah, great,_ _ **now**_ _look what you did, a-hole!_

 _[Beck] Me?!_ _ **You**_ _were the one I was aiming for, yiu damn fool… it's_ _ **your**_ _fault for ducking!_

 _[Stardust] You son of a…_ _ ***groan***_ _forget it, let me just… make him… comfortable… okay, until he wakes up, I'm continuing this story._

 _[Beck] Oh,_ _ **please**_ _, what are you gonna do? Make it the way "A Journey Beyond Sanity" is?_

 _[Stardust] I_ _ **got this,**_ _I know his writing style by now; you just shut your muzzle before I decide to kill you off by the end of this chapter._

* * *

When Sunset Shimmer had finally opened her eyes, she realized quite a few things… she was a unicorn again, her head and body ached in pain, and she was in some sort of dungeon cell.

" _What's going on?"_ wondered Sunset, speaking in a weakened voice because of how tired and hurt she currently felt. " _Where am I?"_

Then, to her suprise (and relief), she could see the outline of a familiar pony that was standing in the

shadows. "Oh, thank God - I mean, Celestia… Twilight, you have no idea how glad I am to… um… why are y-you… laughing?"

" _Hahahahaha…"_ As she continued to let out an evil laugh, Midnight slowly walked into the light, and once she was fully revealed to Sunset, the young alicorn said, "It's cause of how the expression was on your face, thinking that I was actually your _beloved_ princess friend."

Now feeling confused, Sunset asked, "Well, if you aren't Twilight, then why do you look like her?"

Midnight rolled her eyes, and shook her head before saying, "It's because I am her _evil_ counterpart… which is why you are in _Anti-Equestria…"_

Then, the alicorn's horn started to glow with red-colored magic, and Sunset backed herself up against the wall as Midnight concluded her statement.

"... and I think it's time for _you_ to go back to _sleep_."

 _################_

 _[Beck] Oh, yeah, and_ _ **I'm**_ _the worst pony, right?_

 _[Stardust] Will you ****ing shut it?!_

 _###############_

Once Jack and Casey had explained their dilemna to EG Twilight, she quickly led them to her downstairs basement, which was actually a laboratory, and the light-orange teenager let out a whistle.

"This place looks pretty cool, Twilight," said Casey, giving the glasses-wearing teen a positive compliment as he started to look around, and a bashful smile appeared on her face. "How long did it take… oh, sweet, is this supposed to be a-"

"Um, she'll give you a grand tour later, pal," replied Jack, bringing him back to his side, and he looked back at the former Crystal Prep student. "Do you think you could figure out how we can use Casey's watch to get to wherever Evil Stardust might have taken Sunset?"

As EG Twilight analayzed and looked over the special wristwatch, she replied, "Yeah, but I'm sorry to say that something like this might take some time, Jack."

Nodding his head, the young man said, "No worries, Twilight, just do the best that you can."

While EG Twilight continued on with her work, Casey was about to ask another question when he suddenly began to cough a few times.

"Are you alright?" asked EG Twilight. "I think I have a bag of cough drops around here somewhere."

The young man shook his head, and replied, "No, it's fine, I just, uh… ***cough-cough***... I think I'll go look for them while you work."

* * *

 _[Stardust's World]_

Once he was sure that everypony in the room was calm enough, Stardust said, "Alright, first, we need to make sure that they're not all waiting for us in your world's version of this library by-"

" _Got ya covered, Stardusty! Be right back!"_

 _Whoosh!_

Suddenly, to everyone's surprise, Pinkie jumped straight into the mirror, and after she was gone, Stardust brought a hoof to his forehead while Twilight's counterpart quickly started to become worried.

"Why would she do something like that?" asked the young alicorn.

 _Don't remind me, Starswirl,_ thought Stardust, who was also sensing the princess' concerned feelings, and he said, "I'm sure that she-"

 _Whoosh!_

After having been gone for about 10 seconds, Pinkie made her return, and was licking away some leftover chocolate that had been on her hoof before smiling at everypony that was in the room.

"Well, I don't think they're in the castle anymore," said the pink Earth Pony. "Otherwise, I _probably_ wouldn't have come back to this world like how I did right now."

Before Twilight's counterpart could say anything in response, Rainbow Dash cried, "Pinkie, you almost were about to have Twilight get freaked out… and is Beck still in his cell?"

"Nope," replied Pinkie, shaking her head. "So wherever Evil Star and Evil Us went, they probably took Beck with him, and… what's wrong, Twilight?"

Said alicorn was now pacing back and forth inside of the library, looking _very_ concerned while slowly entering into panic mode.

"If those two are working together now, then that means something worse is going to happen than what they had done to us and Stardust's friends… and my idea of having Casey fuse with Stardust again to defeat Evil Stardust is useless because I caused him to leave off to Celestia knows where after I said that we needed to take a break, thinking it was the right decision to make, but now I'm starting to regret ever saying that tohim since there's no other way for me to ask him to fuse-"

She was suddenly cut off by Stardust's girlfriend, who smiled at her as she placed a hoof on her counterpart's shoulder.

"It'll be alright, Twilight, don't worry... I'm sure Jack can find a sensible way of dealing with this dilemna," replied the young alicorn, trying her best to make her other self feel positive. "Besides, Jack _did_ say to us that Casey would be fine-"

" _Not exactly_ something that sounds very pleasing to my ears," muttered Starlight, who was still annoyed with the gold pony.

Stardust was about to respond, but he found himself sensing the contrasting emotions of both his girlfriend and her counterpart, which was all just one big mixture of concern, panic, guilt, and fear, and it didn't help that he could also sense their thoughts, as well, with his Twilight wanting to believe that everything was going to be fine, and her counterpart was thinking of what could possibly be the worst things to happen now that their enemies were working together.

"I still can't believe you actually decided to just help yourself to a slice o' cake back in our Twilight's castle," exclaimed Applejack, who was now frowning at the pink pony. "What in the hay made ya think that was a good idea?"

"What? I was _hungry_ ," whined Pinkie Pie, and while the two of them started to argue with each other, Starlight noticed that Stardust was now gone.

 _Where does he think_ _ **he's**_ _going?_

* * *

" _Uggggghhh…"_ moaned Stardust, while laying his head on the desk that was in his bedroom. "So… much… emotions and… thoughts that aren't my own…"

A few minutes later, he heard the sound of somepony walking in, and a familiar voice saying, "Hey, Stardust, I was wondering why I saw this book that has… oh, boy, eyes are closed, and you're having your head down on the desk… everypony not letting you get some sleep again?"

Realizing that this was the Starlight Glimmer from his world, Stardust let out a sigh, and he lifted his head off the desk to look at his friend. "No, it's a little more worse than what happened on that day… um, remember I told you about that one time when Twilight and I met an Earth Pony who came from a parallel version of this world?"

"Was it before or after the whole-"

"After those events."

Starlight became silent for a moment as she tried to remember what Stardust was talking about.

Then, once she did, the young unicorn replied, "Never got a chance to meet him yet, but yeah, I remember… why, is he here?"

"He _was_ , but now he's gone, so that leaves us with his world's version of the Mane 6 because they were almost attacked by my evil counterpart and his friends, who are evil versions of Twilight and the other five mares... " explained Stardust, who was now rubbing the sides of his head with his hooves.

"And because of what I can do regarding the power of balance, both versions of Twilight are unintentionally giving me a headache while I sense their emotions and hear their thoughts… not to mention that your counterpart is upset with me for - wait, what kind of book did you find again?"

Before Starlight could give him an answer, his girlfriend suddenly appeared at the doorway, and she said, " _There_ you are, Jack! How come you decided to come up here?'

"I just needed a moment for myself, love," replied Stardust. "How's your other self doing now?"

A look of concern appeared on her face, and the young alicorn said, "Better, especially since everypony else is helping out… but she's worried about what could happen now that Beck is with your evil self, and Starlight's still upset with you, for some reason."

"Huh? No, I'm not," replied a confused Starlight. "I was making sure he was okay."

"No, she meant the _other_ you," said Stardust, trying to forget about his headache. "I could sense a lot of pain and anger… and frustration… coming from her while the two of us had an argument - wait, where did she go?"

 _############_

After pacing back and forth several times, Applejack stood still, and said, "Alright, so we pretty much got to stop Evil Stardust, the evil versions of ourselves, _and_ Beck from doin' Celestia knows what?"

Twilight's counterpart nodded her head, and she replied, "Yes, but since Casey isn't here, that means he can't fuse with Stardust to turn into Starcade, so now, I'm trying to think of a way for us-"

" _Hi, Starlight!"_ greeted Pinkie, waving a hoof at the unicorn's other self that was now entering the library.

"Um…" Starlight looked at all seven of the ponies, and asked, "So, you're _all_ from another world that's parallel to this one, I presume?"

Everypony nodded their head, and Starlight began to focus her attention on her counterpart. "And… may I ask why you, uh, don't like my friend?"

"Huh? Who do you… oh, right, _him_ ," replied the parallel version of Starlight. "I just figured that he'd want to find Casey _before_ taking on these evil ponies - with most of them wanting to hurt your friend, by the way… but he thinks he'll be just fine, which I guess is the same thing he thought while Beck was doing all those terrible things to Casey and the rest of us, even though he and Casey are supposedly really close friends since they've spent almost every day together for Celestia knows how long."

As Stardust and his girlfriend came into the library, Starlight said, "Well… for the record, none of us here _knew_ what was going on in your world because nopony told us-"

"Er…" said Twilight, with everypony now looking at her. "Well, the last message that my other self sent prior to her asking if she could come see us was her telling me that there were strange disappearances… and yes, I did have a bad feeling that something terrible was happening in their world, but me and Jack had to help _our_ Pinkie with her own problem of not eating the nom-nom treats…"

" _Nom-noms?_ " wondered Pinkie. "What are those?"

Before the young alicorn could answer, Fluttershy suddenly went over to [my] Twilight, and asked, "You think we should, um... also mention to Stardust what Evil Stardust said about him wanting to hurt us like he did Sun-?"

" _Sunset?"_ said Stardust, as well as his girlfriend and his world's version of Starlight, and Fluttershy simply nodded her head.

"That… can't be right," replied Twilight. "She was just here a few days ago. Was it the one from _your_ world he-"

Her counterpart shook her head, and she said, "I don't think so… because she came to Ponyville a few days ago when me and Casey were still in the hospital."

"Well, if it wasn't _our_ Sunset… or _your_ Sunset…" wondered Stardust. "Then it has to be one from another world… which means that, if they aren't at your castle, Twilight, there's only one place for them to be at…"

"And, where would _that_ be?" questioned Starlight's counterpart, and Stardust muttered to himself before giving his answer.

"Anti-Equestria."

 **Insert "The Bells of Notre Dame" by Alan Menken around 3:50 - 3:56 mark.**

" _Ooooh, can you do that again?"_ asked Pinkie, and Stardust looked at her, in confusion.

"What are you talking about?"

Pinkie was about to answer him when Rainbow said, "Hold on just a sec, Stardust… shouldn't we go to one of our Sunset's world in order to see if-"

"Oh, yeah, that reminds me," interrupted Pinkie, who was now holding up a necklace that she handed over to Stardust. "I also found this lying on the ground when I went back to our Twilight's castle."

Recognizing it as Sunset's geode necklace, a frown appeared on Stardust's face, and he said, "Okay, we're definitely going to his world now… _but_ I'm guessing that he must have Sunset with them in their version of this castle, which means she'll be guarded by probably his anti-pony friends, so-"

"Oh! Oh! Does that mean we get to wear disguises?" asked a hopeful Pinkie, but after Stardust shook his head, she let out a groan. " _Ah, bummer_ …"

"Well, I think the only pony who needs a disguise is _you_ , sugarcube," said Applejack, looking at Stardust. "I mean, he has a scratch over his right eye, and you don't have somethin' like that, so…"

Before Stardust could say anything, a sly grin appeared on the face of Starlight's counterpart, and with her horn glowing, she said, "I can fix that… close your right eye, Stardusk-"

" _Star_ _ **-dust**_ _,_ and what would be the point of - _**ow!**_ _**What the…"**_

Suddenly, Pinkie let out a gasp of surprise, and she cried, "Hey, look at this, Twilight! Their machine has that one button you told me not to press, too! I wonder if…"

"Pinkie, wait!" cried Twilight's counterpart. "You don't hav - _oh, no..."_

* * *

 _Anti-Equestria_

After finishing up her business with Sunset, Midnight walked back into the throne room, where Evil Stardust was talking with Beck and the others about their plan, and she said, " _Stardust! We need to talk…"_

"We do? About what?" wondered Stardust's counterpart, and he regretted saying that after Midnight walked up to him.

" _You know_ _ **exactly**_ _what I mean,"_ growled the young alicorn, with a hint of a sly smile on her face.

It took a few seconds for Evil Stardust to understand what she meant, so after nodding his head, he turned to face Beck. "Alright, new pony, while I discuss some stuff with Midnight, you and my friends figure out if Casey is with my other self… cause things are gonna go sour _real fast_ if I find out there is a _chance_ of them becoming Starcade. _Get the picture_?"

"Sure, just as long as you don't interfere with _me_ when it's time to deal with _her_ other self," replied Beck, in a similar tone. "Get the picture?"

Before Evil Stardust could respond, Midnight pulled him out of the room rather harshly, and once they were gone, Beck asked, "Are they together or… broken up…"

"Eh, it's like a love-hate thing, newbie," replied Anti-Rainbow, giving a shrug. "But it'll be a while before we see either of those two again."

"And, why is that?"

Pinkie's counterpart rolled her eyes, and said, "Well, I mean, this story is _rated T_ for a reason."

Beck just looked at her, for a moment, before he shook his head, deciding to forget about it.


	20. Working Together, Part 2

**MLP: Seeds of the Past**

 _ **Chapter 20 - Working Together, Part 2**_

 _[Beck] Alright, move aside,_ _ **human**_ _… you had your fun, but now it's_ _ **my**_ _turn to write some of this story._

 _[Stardust] As_ _ **if**_ _! You don't this series as well as I do, so-_

 _WHOOSH!_

 _[Stardust] Oh, yeah, sure like a damn dart is actually… gonna… work on… f*** you..._

 _ **Thump!**_

 _[Beck] Aaaaaaannnd, he's out! Right then, let's see what I can add to this chapter… huh, I feel like I'm forgetting someth - oh, yeah, um...Hasbro owns the MLP franchise except for the OCs that are in this story, who were created by three different people._

* * *

"... Casey… Casey, wake up…"

The young man let out a yawn while stretching his arms, and said, "Sorry about that, Twilight, but once I took your 'night quilt' medicine, I felt like taking a nap… how long was I out?"

"Long enough for her to finish doing what she had to do with your wristwatch," replied Jack, as the human version of Twilight handed it over to Casey.

"Sweet!" cried a pleased Casey, and he smiled at the young teenage girl after putting the device on. "Thank you… it means a lot."

Sci-Twi nodded her head, and replied, "No problem, happy to help! But, uh, I should point out that, no matter how much I tried, your watch's capability of world traveling is only good enough for one person, which means-"

"I have to find another way to send Sunset back here… by myself," said Casey, letting out a sigh, and he looked over at Jack. "Unless you're comfortable with going-"

"Eh, don't worry about me, pal," said Jack, shaking his head. "Your story's more important than mine, anyway… you just take care of _you-know-what_ so that you can give it to your girlfriend."

Casey's smile went away a little as he said, "Um… but she isn't my-"

"Trust me, Casey, she is," replied the young man. "Also, I can't exactly… get involved much in these type of situations, unfortunately… there are just some rules that I can't break."

Before Casey could ask what he meant by that, Jack added, "Go, hurry… and don't forget what I told you back in the store, okay?"

The pony-turned-teenager nodded his head, and as he started to prepare himself, he thought, _Time for me to set things right._

 _WHOOSH!_

Then, Casey activated the watch's traveling mechanism, causing a magical swirl to appear around his entire body, and after a quick flash of light, he was gone.

"Did you give him one of your _pep talks_ that you always give to me and the others?" wondered Sci-Twi.

"I tend to think of them as _inspiring_ _speeches,_ Twilight, but yes, yes I did," replied Stardust's real-life counterpart. "And so far, they seem to work pretty well for the people that I've told them to… oh, before I go, did you figure out what's in that stuff he kept drinking at the bar?"

 _Ding!_

Sci-Twi walked over to the nearby printer, observing the paper of information that it had just delivered, and said, "Well, based on the sample that you gave me, whatever he's drinking is… is… _oh, boy_ …"

* * *

 _Anti-Equestria_

"Alright, everypony," said Beck, speaking in a commanding tone. "Twilight and the others are probably on their way here right now, so we should start walking around this castle to make sure that-"

"Since when did _you_ decide to start giving _us_ orders?" questioned Anti-Rainbow.

Beck made a gesture towards the door, and replied, "Since your leader _put_ me in charge while he f - I mean, sc - I mean, sle... _talks_ to Midnight, which is why I am saying that we all need to start checking every part of this castle.

"If you see any of your counterparts, do whatever you want with them… if you come across Casey, make sure he's nowhere near Stardust, and if you find _that_ pony, leave him somewhere for Evil Stardust to find… but make sure you leave Twilight Sparkle to _only me_."

Even though she didn't really like this new pony that much, Anti-Rainbow nodded her head, and swiftly went out of the throne room, with the rest of her doing the same not long after.

As for Beck, a sinister smile appeared on his face, and he said, "When I get my hooves on you, Twilight, I will treat you _worse_ than how I did back in my lair."

 _The Library_

Rubbing the side of his head, Stardust let out a groan, and he asked, "Is… um, everypony okay?"

All of Casey's friends, as well as his world's version of Twilight and Starlight, nodded their heads, and the young pony replied, "Good… so now that we know…"

He then glared at Starlight's counterpart, and asked, "What the _[BEEP]_ was that all about?"

"Oh, _relax_ , Stardusk," said Starlight, rolling her eyes. "It's just a harmless scratch that will probably go away in a few days or so… nothing really worth complaining about."

" _Nothing worth…_ are you _actually_ serio-"

However, before Stardust could continue his yelling, Starlight suddenly stepped in between the two of them, and said, "Alright, how about _instead_ of arguing with each other before we end up getting _caught_ , let's all look around this castle, and start searching for Sunset… um…"

The young unicorn took a quick moment to look at everypony in the room. "Okay, the two Twilight's will go with Stardust, and the rest of you decide who pairs up with who…"

Then, in a more serious tone, she said, "... while _you and I_ have ourselves a little _chat_."

 _Whoosh!_

Everyone except Pinkie quickly headed out of the library, and Starlight's counterpart looked at her other self in disbelief. " _Me?_ Why do I-"

" _Ohhhhhhh…."_ interrupted Pinkie, whose entire body started vibrating, followed by her mane and tail twirling around in all sorts of directions, and the two versions of Starlight looked at her, in confusion. " _Somepony's about to come!"_

Suddenly, an unfamiliar swirl of sparkling magic appeared in the middle of the room, followed by a flash of bright light, which made the three ponies try to shield their eyes from it.

Then, once the light was gone, they found themselves looking at a worn-out Casey, who was currently lying down on the ground.

" _Ugh… my head_ …" muttered the young pony, and he shook his head a few times while to his hooves. "Now I see why Stardust _\- oof!"_

" _Casey!"_ interrupted Starlight's counterpart, who was now embracing him warmly. "You're okay!"

As Casey started to chuckle, the Starlight from Stardust's world began to realize something, and a smile appeared on her face. _Of course!_

"Yes, totally fine… and I'd love to talk, but I have to find - _ow_!"

To Starlight and Pinkie's surprise, the purple unicorn's counterpart thumped him on the back of his head, and said, "Don't _scare_ us like that again! You know we're still not completely over with what happened back in our world."

"I'm sorry, Star, but it was something I had to do," replied Casey, now rubbing the area that was now stinging in pain. "And… um… why are you and Pinkie and…"

Having finally noticed the other Starlight, an uncertain Casey asked, "You wouldn't happen to be her _Evil_ self, would you?"

Starlight shook her head, and answered, "I'm the version of _her_ that comes from Stardust's world… and it's nice to finally meet you, Casey."

"Likewise," replied Casey, politely shaking hooves with her. "Has Stardust told you about you me already?"

"Er… well…" admitted a sheepish-looking Starlight. "Not since the day that he came back from the-"

Before she could finish her sentence, her counterpart gave the two of them a reminder after clearing her throat. "We _are_ in a darker and alternate version of Equestria to find Sunset Shimmer, so why don't we save introductions till later, okay?"

Remembering a certain human being from another world, Casey nodded his head, with a serious expression. "Right, then… Starlight, you come with me… and Pinkie, you help out Stardust's Starlight."

Then, the two of them hurried out of the room before Starlight could suggest something else, and left her alone with the parallel version of Pinkie, who asked, "So, when did Stardust tell you about him again?"

* * *

"Jack… rubbing your eye like that isn't going to make the scar go away."

After putting his hoof down, Stardust muttered angrily to himself before saying, "I'm gonna have _one of them_ find a way to fix this before-"

" _Star? Midnight?"_

The two of them turned around to see Rainbow Dash, but Stardust quickly sensed that it was the dark version of their pegasus friend.

"Huh, I didn't think you two would finish _talking_ to each other so quickly… no wonder the walls didn't shake."

"What are you-" Twilight started to say, but to her surprise, Stardust was beginning to chuckle.

"One of my many talents, Crash… now, why in the holy _[BEEP]_ are you not back with the others?"

Anti-Rainbow rolled her eyes, and replied, "Because _Newbie Pony_ thinks that _Twilight_ and the rest of her friends are already in the castle, so now everyone's looking-"

However, to their surprise, the young pegasus suddenly asked, "Uh, you okay, Midnight?"

 _Pretend to be your darker counterpart,_ thought Stardust, who was now speaking to Twilight telepathically, and the alicorn nodded her head.

"Yeah, of course, I am… why would I not be?"

Continuing to look at Twilight, a suspicious Anti-Rainbow said, "Because I just realized I said that _name_ you hate to hear, and by now, you'd already be in flames, or would just start chewing my head off."

"Well… I just don't really _feel_ like bursting into flames, Crash," replied Twilight, speaking in an angered tone. "And maybe I'm simply in too much of a good mood to yell anyway, so-"

" _Good mood?"_ said Anti-Rainbow. "Okay, either Star here made you _really happy_ this time, or-"

Then, before she could finish her sentence, Stardust exclaimed, "Just _what exactly_ are you trying to say about my girlfriend, Crash?"

"Hey, I'm only lookin' out for ya, Star," replied the blue pegasus. "There _is_ another version of her in this place, supposedly, so…"

Stardust rolled his eyes, and he said, "I think I would _know_ if this wasn't my own damn girlfriend, Crash; otherwise, there's no way in _hell_ that I'd do something like _this_ to anypony else."

He took Twilight's face into his hooves, and before either she or Anti-Rainbow could say anything, Stardust delivered a _very_ passionate kiss to his special somepony, who eventually began returning the favor.

Then, as it started to turn into a make-out session, a look of disgust appeared on Anti-Rainbow's face, and she said, " _Oh, come on, not in front of me, Star!"_

Unfortunately, it didn't seem like they would stop anytime soon, so Anti-Rainbow quickly flew off before she ended up getting sick to her stomach, and once he realized that they were alone again, Stardust pulled himself away from Twilight's face, with both of them blushing heavily, as well as taking several deep breaths.

"Um… w-where did…" said Twilight. "Y-you never… like that… with our to-"

"Not… the right place… to talk about it," replied Stardust, holding up a hoof to pause her statement. "And sorry that you… uh… love, w-where did… Casey's Twilight go?"

* * *

As she and Rainbow Dash walked down the hall, Applejack said, "Alright, Rainbow, any of these here rooms could be holdin' Sunset, so if this were like tryin' to find a fancy-schmancy spellbook, keep your eye out for a door that-"

" _Ha-ha, found it!"_ cried a pleased Rainbow, who was now flying in front a door that looked darker than any of the other ones in the hallway.

So, after opening the door, the two of them swiftly entered the darkened room, which lit up once Rainbow closed the door, and both of their eyes became wide at what they were now seeing.

"Uh… Applejack… I don't think Sunset is in here."

For some reason, the floor of the room was covered completely in mouse traps that had yet to be set off, and the two ponies had a limited amount of free space to themselves.

"Alright, then, how about we-" The orange pony started to show, but when she tried to open the door, it wouldn't budge, which made her gulp nervously. "Uh-oh… I think we just got ourselves locked in here."

Rainbow looked around the entire room, and she asked, "Well, this is the only door, so how are we supposed to - wait, what's that?"

The two friends noticed a small and adorable-like creature coming out of a tiny hole from across the room, and that it was walking over to one of the mouse traps placed in the middle of the room, which contained a delicious mini-slice of cheese.

" _Oh, this ain't gonna turn out well, sugarcube."_

* * *

As Sunset laid against the bars of her cell door, thinking about what Jack was doing back in their world, she quickly became alarmed after hearing somepony enter the room.

" _Sunset? You in here, darling?"_

" _Um, Rarity, I'm not sure if that is the best-"_

The yellow unicorn stood up, in surprise, and said, "Fluttershy? Rarity?"

"Sunset Shimmer!" cried the two ponies, now hurrying over to her, and a look of pity appeared on their faces after seeing how she looked.

"Good heavens, darling, you look _terrible_ ," said Rarity. "What have they _done_ to you?"

Sunset shook her head, and replied, "It doesn't matter, just help me out of here... quickly."

The white unicorn and yellow pegasus nodded their heads, and began trying to find a key for the door.

"Um, not to sound rude or anything, Sunset," said Rarity, as she walked around the room. "But can't you use your magic to open the lock?"

Sunset shook her head, and replied, "They made it so I can't use… my magic in this world…"

" _And, may I say, how_ _ **wonderful**_ _it's worked out thus far."_

The three of them quickly became silent after seeing somepony else walk into the room, and unfortunately, it was Midnight Sparkle, who had a sly grin on her face.

"Well, well… _this_ is going to be fun…"

* * *

After approaching the unoccupied throne room, Casey had Starlight keep watch from the doorway while he looked around the room for clues into figuring out Sunset's location.

At first, he didn't find anything, so the young pony was about to leave when something caught his eye from the other side of the room.

"What… is this?" wondered Casey, picking up the unopened thermos that had come from Kronos' home, but as he started to walk away, a familiar voice cried, " _Don't move!"_

Appearing on top of the Cutie Map table, with the Time Staff in his hooves, Anti-Stardust took a quick glance at Starlight, and said, "You better stay right there if you know what's good for you."

Then, turning his attention back over to Casey, Anti-Stardust aimed the staff at him, and said, "You certainly have guts, kid… I'll give you that much."

When Casey didn't give him a response, the dark pony became slightly confused, and he raised an eyebrow. "Aren't you afraid of me?"

"No… I'm terrified, actually… and I have been ever since the last time we were here," replied Casey, in a serious tone. "Just like I'm terrified of telling Twilight that I love her because I don't want to end up losing her like how I lost my parents, the only other ponies I've said those words to… but someone recently told me that you should always face your fears… so I'm doing that right now… starting with you."

For a few seconds, Anti-Stardust remained quiet, and then, he let out a chuckle before saying, "Well, look who's finally acting like a stallion…"

With the staff now glowing with deadly magical energy, the dark pony asked, "Any last words?"

* * *

"There… that feels much better… good thing this place has an infirmary room."

After replacing her old bandages with fresh and brand-new ones, Twilight was about to leave when she heard a voice say, " _You're pathecially predictable, princess… like a moth to the flame."_

Standing in the doorway was Beck, who had a sinister smile across his face, and Twilight quickly started to become afraid.

"I knew you'd come to a place like this," continued the light-green Earth Pony. "So, now, I think it's time for us to continue where we left off back in my lair... and your precious _special somepony_ isn't going to stop me this time."


	21. A Truth Revealed, Part 1

**MLP: Seeds of the Past**

 _Chapter 21 - A Truth Revealed, Part 1  
_

 _Author's Note:_ "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" belongs to DHX Media and Hasbro, while Stardust Balance belongs to the Warrior of Twilight, and Beck was created by FanficFan920. I just own the story.

 _Warning - This chapter also contains some dark moments that may not be safe for any young fans of the show to read._

* * *

" _Well, at least he hasn't eaten it yet,"_ said Rainbow, speaking in a hushed tone, and Applejack scowled at her.

" _You're not exactly helpin' ease the situation… shoot, I don't what's worse; that lil' fella gettin' himself caught in the trap, or us bein' covered by-"_

However, the young pony paused her sentence after noticing that the mouse was heading back to the hole it came out of, with the slice of cheese in its paws, and she said, "Huh, would ya look at that? Must be our lucky day."

Rainbow nodded, in agreement, and let out a sigh of relief. "Yup, and you _actually_ thought- wait, what's it doing now?"

 **[Insert "** _ **Battle With The Forces of Evil"**_ **from Sleeping Beauty]**

After coming back out of its hole, now holding onto a cherry stem, the mouse tossed it up into the air before leaving again, and Applejack glared at a sheepish Rainbow. "Uh, too soon?"

 _Snap! Snap! Snap!_

The next thing they knew, all of the mouse traps were going off, and Applejack quickly tried breaking down the door using her hind legs while Rainbow tried to offer vocal support.

" _Hurry before they reach us!"_

" _Well, you..._ _ **could**_ _help me out... here, ya know!"_ yelled the Earth Pony, in between her slams against the door.

* * *

As Beck started moving towards Twilight, the purple alicorn found herself wishing that Casey wasn't in another world, but then, a familiar voice interrupted her thoughts.

 _Twilight! Wherever you are, run!_

" _Stardust?"_ said Twilight, and Beck rolled his eyes before turning his head around.

"For Equestria's sake, did we _not_ talk about you leaving Twilight to - huh?"

While Beck realized that Evil Stardust wasn't there, Twilight heard the voice of her other self's special somepony again.

 _Twilight, you need to run, and use your magic!_

A frustrated Beck turned back to face Twilight, but to his surprise, she wasn't there anymore.

" _Where the hell is - hey!"_

The purple alicorn was now out in the hallway, and as she began running away, Beck cried, "You are _not_ getting away from me, princess!"

Then, after he placed a circular-like tray into his muzzle, the sinister pony began chasing Twilight, and because she was still not completely a hundred percent, it didn't take that long for him to catch up.

 _ **POOF!**_

 _Damn you and your magic,_ thought Beck, after seeing Twilight teleport herself several feet away from him, and he started moving faster.

* * *

" _Any last words?"_

For a moment, Casey remained silent, but then, he pointed at something behind Evil Stardust, and cried, "Look, a moose!"

"Huh?" The dark pony turned his head around, and Casey tossed the thermos over to Starlight, who caught it by using her magic.

" _Come on, let's go!"_

After the two of them ran out of the throne room, Evil Stardust growled, in frustration, and he started running after them.

"So what's this for?" wondered Starlight, referring to the thermos that was above her head.

"I have no idea," replied Casey. "But I have a feeling that it can help us some - _aah_! Quick, go left!"

The two of them suddenly turned in a direction heading left, and Evil Stardust stopped moving so that he could yell, "Where the _hell_ have you all been at?"

"Tryin' to find the other versions of us!" replied Anti-Applejack, who was with the dark versions of Rarity, Rainbow, and Fluttershy, as the three of them began following after their friend.

"Where the _[BEEP]_ is our Pinkie at?!"

* * *

As Stardust and his girlfriend continued to run down the hall, Twilight asked, "You sure this is the way, Jack?"

"Positive, love, I could sense her-"

" _Heeeeyyy, Starrrrdust!"_

The two of them stopped running after noticing what appeared to be Pinkie, who was a few feet away.

"Which one is this?" wondered Twilight.

A sly grin appeared on the pink pony's face, and she replied, "Maybe _this_ can answer your question!"

 _Whoosh!_

Stardust watched as a circular, beeping object quickly flew towards them, and he said, "This is not-"

 _ **BOOM!**_

Anti-Pinkie let out an evil chuckle as she ran away from the smoke explosion while Twilight and Stardust started coughing.

"Yep, that was the evil one," said the purple alicorn. "Jack, are you okay?"

" _Just… peachy…"_ muttered an irritated Stardust. "What the _[BEEP]_ was that supposed to - nope, never mind, don't tell me."

"You mean to not questi-"

" _I said, don't tell me!"_

* * *

At this point, Beck was downright furious with Twilight, who kept avoiding being captured by him, thanks to her magic, but a sinister idea suddenly entered his mind.

 _Alright, princess, let's see you escape from this!_

So, after he was close enough for the young princess to teleport away, Beck quickly tossed the circular object in front of him, like one would toss a frisbee, and once Twilight reappeared, the tray smacked right into her weak spot.

" _Aaaaaaggghhh!"_ screamed Twilight, who found herself collapsing to the floor, gritting her teeth in frustration while a smirking Beck approached the fallen alicorn. _"Beck… stop… please…"_

"No, Twilight, I won't stop," replied Beck, speaking in a cold and serious tone, and he started applying pressure to her chest. "Not until you _know_ what it's like to _lose everything_ that you hold dear."

" _Beck, I - aaaaaaaauuuuggghhh!"_

 _#############_

As Midnight began walking towards them, Sunset looked over at Rarity, and asked, "Um, you wouldn't happen to know any magical attacks like the ones that Twilight and Starlight use, would you?"

Before the white unicorn could give a response, Twilight's dark self let out a chuckle. "Why don't I do you all a favor, and show you what _I_ can do… since Starlight isn't here to- _aaagghh!_ "

However, an energy blast that came from behind sent Midnight crashing into the room's farthest corner, and the other three ponies turned to see Starlight (from Stardust's world), as well as Pinkie Pie.

 _Wham!_

Then, after using another blast to break the lock into pieces, Fluttershy opened the cell door, and Sunset quickly hurried out of it, saying, "Thank you so much."

"No problem, but let's get you back to your world a-sap," replied the purple unicorn, and she led everypony else out of the room. "Also, I think Twilight's in trouble!"

 _#################_

"Which Twilight was that who screamed?" wondered Starlight's other self, as she and Casey continued to run away from Evil Stardust and four of his friends.

"I have no idea, but I got a bad feeling that- _aaaaagghh!_ "

His response was cut off after Evil Stardust used the Time Staff to fire an energy blast at the two ponies, causing them to collapse while the canteen rolled away after landing on the ground.

"Alright, I have had _enough_ of this _nonsense_ ," growled a frustrated Evil Stardust. "Prepare to _die_!"

Then, he was about to fire another energy blast when, suddenly, a familiar voice cried, "Hey, _asshole!_ Why don't you shut the _[BEEP]_ up?"

Evil Stardust lifted his head up, and he found himself looking at his counterpart, which made a smirk appear on the dark pony's face.

"I am _definitely_ going to enjoy this…"

Stardust chuckled, and he replied, "Yeah, well, so am I… and if _this thermos_ does what I think it can, then I hope you're all comfortable with _itty-bitty_ living space."

Recognizing what Stardust was now opening up, Anti-Rainbow asked, "Hey, isn't that what Kronos- _aaagh, what's happening?!_ "

Everyone looked over at the blue pegasus, whose hooves were now turning into something similar to dust, as well as those of the other evil ponies, and it was going straight inside of the thermos!

" _Aaaaaggghh!"_ cried Anti-Applejack, who was the first one to be sucked into the thermos, followed by Anti-Rarity and Anti-Fluttershy.

Not wanting the same to happen to Anti-Rainbow, Evil Stardust grabbed ahold of her hooves, and it momentarily stopped them from entering the thermos, but that time was cut short when Anti-Pinkie suddenly appeared, crashing right into the blue pegasus.

" _No!"_ yelled Evil Stardust, and he glared angrily at his counterpart. " _You do not get to win every ti- Midnight!"_

Just like he tried with Rainbow, Evil Stardust grabbed onto her girlfriend's hooves after the half-turned-into-dust alicorn appeared.

" _This is not over yet!"_ growled the dark Earth Pony. " _I refuse to lose to someone as pathetic-"_

 _ **WHAM!**_

However, Evil Stardust was unable to finish his sentence after an energy blast from the Time Staff went straight towards Midnight, and that only left him once she was inside the thermos.

"You messed with the _wrong_ human, _[BEEP],"_ said Stardust, who then nodded at whoever was holding onto Kronos' staff, and Evil Stardust turned around to find a smiling Sunset Shimmer.

"It's _payback time_ …"

Then, the yellow unicorn fired an energy blast at Evil Stardust, and he suffered the same fate as the rest of his friends, with Stardust closing the thermos once he was inside.

"What… was… _that?_ " wondered Casey, as he and Starlight began to stand up.

Instead of answering right away, Stardust tossed over the thermos to Starlight, who quickly used her magic to blow it up, and after realizing that she'd done that, she said, "Oh, Celestia… did I just… do what I… _ohhhh_ …"

The young unicorn fainted into Casey's hooves, and he was about to talk to Stardust when Sunset said, "You must've went through a lot of trouble to come _here_ , Jack."

"Oh, you _have_ _ **no**_ _idea,_ " replied the glasses-wearing pony, and he looked back at Casey, who realized what was going on.

" _Jack?_ W-what are…" stammered Casey. "B-but how did… I… y-you said that… stuff about some rules you couldn't break…"

The human-turned-pony chuckled at his friend, and shrugged as he replied, "Eh, well, I figured _… what the hell?"_

Before Casey could ask him anything else, Sunset hurried over to Jack, giving him a loving embrace that brought a smile all three of their faces.

"But, um, I think I should mention, Sunset, that I don't have much time left here now, so-"

An amused Sunset rolled her eyes, and looked over at Casey, asking if he could quickly help them, which the young pony agreed to, followed by him using the Time Staff to create a return portal for the two of them to go through.

"Jack, wait, how were you-"

"I'll explain another time, pal, I promise," replied the gold pony, as he and Sunset stepped into the portal. "And I hope you get to tell Twilight you-know-what!"

 _Whoosh!_

Once they were gone, the portal disappeared in the blink of an eye, and a confused Casey had no idea what to say.

" _Ughhh…"_ moaned Starlight, who was coming to, and she looked up at Casey. "What happened? Where did Stardust go?"

" _Casey?"_

As he helped Starlight up to her hooves, the two of them saw Twilight quickly approaching them, alongside-

" _Evil Stardust!"_ cried Starlight, and the purple unicorn retrieved the staff from Casey's hooves, aiming it at the gold pony, but Twilight quickly stood in front of him.

"Starlight, wait! This is the actual Stardust, the one you gave that eye scar to!"

A confused Starlight turned back around, and said, "Wait, but who was-"

"At ease, Starlight," replied Casey, lowering the staff, and he looked at the two ponies in front of them. "Do either of you know about a-"

" _Aaaaagggghhhh!"_

A scream interrupted him from finishing, and Casey was instantly brought back to the last time he'd heard that exact scream… when Beck was about to-

" _ **Twilight**_ _!"_ shouted Casey, who began heading over in the direction that he'd heard the voice come from.

* * *

As the tears began falling from Twilight's face, Beck said, "Now it's time for me to put the nail in the coffin."

He moved his hoof away from the alicorn's chest, with a sinister smile across his face, but before he could do anything, Casey appeared from out of nowhere, and launched himself right into the villianous pony, with the two of them crashing through a window.

Then, after they landed on the outdoor ground, Beck began to try and stand up. " _What the damn hell is your-"_

A furious Casey stopped him from talking by delivering a leg sweep move that sent Beck falling back down to the floor, and he cried, " _You think you can hurt my special somepony?!"_

 _ **Wham! Wham! Wham!**_

He began punching Beck the same way the green pony had done to Twilight, and he added more strength every time he landed a punch.

 _ **POOF!**_

" _Casey, wait!"_ yelled Twilight, who had used her last ounce of magical strength to teleport near him.

" _No, Twilight, he deserves this!"_ exclaimed Casey, still continuing to harm Beck, who was now defenseless, at this point.

" _Casey, please… look at me!"_

The furious pony turned his head in Twilight's direction, and found himself looking into her eyes as she begged, " _You are not this type of pony, Casey… put down your hoof…"_

" _Twilight, he… I…"_

His girlfriend shook her head, and said, " _Please don't do it, Casey… please…"_

For a moment, Casey remained silent as he looked back at a bruised-up Beck, wondering on whether or not he should deliver one last fatal blow.

" _Casey!"_ yelled Starlight, who was now approaching them. _"You can't do this!"_

Tears were now falling from the hesitant pony's face, and after what seemed like forever, Casey _finally_ lowered his front hoof, thus not ending Beck's life, while the other two let out a huge sigh of relief.

"Casey… I-" The young alicorn started to say, but then, her boyfriend raised up a hoof to silence her.

"Twilight, I… I'm sorry… I-I only did this because I… don't want to… l-lose you… and that's because I… I… lo-"

" _Casey, look out!"_

 _ **WHAM!**_

From out of nowhere came a powerful energy blast, and at the very last second, Starlight teleported in front of Casey, causing her to recieve the pain of the attack.

" _Starlight!"_ yelled Casey and Twilight, after watching her land several feet away from them, but before they could run over to her, a swirl of black magic appeared in front of them, and it quickly transformed into a _very_ familiar pony.

" _I'm baaaaaaacccck!"_

 _Rowan,_ thought the two ponies, and the cloaked pony looked back over at Starlight.

"She may not have been first on the list, but _man_ , does it feel good to see her like that… so, that means it's time for… _you two._ "

Then, he transformed into a cloud of black smoke, which quickly headed over to Twilight and Casey, engulfing them in the darkness.

* * *

" _Wakey, wakey, Casey…"_

After hearing his old enemy's voice, Casey opened his eyes, and cried, _"Rowan, you leave… her…"_

The young pony realized that Twilight was no longer by his side, and instead of Anti-Equestria, he was back in the _limbo_ world where Rowan had suffered his defeat.

" _Seem familiar?"_ asked Rowan, with a sinister smile on his face. _"It's where you and your friends ruined everything for me."_

Before Casey could respond, he suddenly felt himself rising up into the air. "What the…"

" _Good thing I had you drink that stuff so many times,"_ taunted Rowan, with an evil chuckle. " _Now it's_ _ **everywhere**_ _in your body, which means I can do what I'm doing right now… along with this."_

 _ **CRACK!**_

After lowering Casey to the ground, Rowan watched as the light-orange pony began screaming in pain, with his enemy saying, " _Looks like you won't be walking anytime soon, little pony_."

 _Star… dust…,_ thought Casey, praying that whatever worked for Stardust and their special some-ponies applied to him, as well.


	22. A Truth Revealed, Part 2

**My Little Pony: Seeds of the Past**

 _ **Chapter 22 - A Truth Revealed, Part 2**_

 _Author's Note: Hasbro and DHX Media are the rightful owners of_ _ **My Little Pony**_ _, while Stardust Balance is owned by the Warrior of Twilight, and Beck belongs to FanficFan920._

 _So, yeah, I realized today that I didn't really give much explaination as to why Rowan showed up, and it was mostly due to the fact that I wanted to finish the now-previous chapter before I ended up going to sleep knocked out, so I did some quick editing, which resulted in making this the second half of the earlier chapter… hopefully you'll enjoy it!_

* * *

After she was able to regain conciousness, Starlight coughed a few times before realizing that Casey and Twilight were gone.

" _W-where did they…"_

" _Starlight!"_ The purple unicorn turned her head to see Stardust and Twilight's counterpart coming over to where she was. _"What happened?"_

Once Starlight was standing on all four hooves, she pointed out to where her friends had been at, saying, "I saw Rowan fire an energy blast straight for Casey, so I jumped in front of him so that he wouldn't get hurt… but now I have no idea where Casey _or_ Twilight are at."

The two of them looked at Starlight with confusion, and Stardust said, "I'm pretty sure that _Rowan_ isn't alive any-"

"I _know_ what I _saw_ , Stardust," replied Starlight, who was now getting upset with him again.

"Okay, _what_ did I ever _do_ to you?" questioned the gold pony, who was also still irritated about her scratching his right eye. "If this is about _Beck,_ then I'm sorry I wasn't there to help, but no pony _told me_ about-"

Before he could finish, Starlight shook her head, and replied, "It's not _just_ that, Stardust… it's the fact that _you_ keep taking away from _me_!"

" _I told you already that-"_ Stardust began to yell, but he paused after realizing what she had just said to him. "Wait, what?"

Starlight rolled her eyes, and was about to repeat her answer when they heard Twilight say, "Oh, my gosh, this would have been a _perfect_ friendship-problem-solving moment if…"

Then, she noticed the two of them looking at her, and Twilight let out a sheepish chuckle.

"Did I… say that out loud?"

 _Star… dust…_

Suddenly, the gold pony heard Casey's voice in his mind, as well as sensing that he was in terrible pain, which made him start to wonder if Starlight _was_ right about Rowan.

"Jack? What is it?" asked Twilight.

"We need to go back to the castle… I think I know where Casey and the other you might be."

 _############_

Once they were in the library, the three of them were about to turn on the Crystal Mirror when they heard a familiar voice cry, " _Wait! Don't leave without us!_ "

As Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie (who had spoken), and Starlight's counterpart walked inside the room, a confused Twilight asked, "Um, what happened to-"

"Hold… _ow_ … on there a minute… _ow…_ sugarcube," said Applejack, followed by Rainbow Dash, but to everyone else's confusion, they both had several mouse traps stuck across their body.

"Um, you _doooooo knoooww_ that those things are meant for something else, right?" pointed out Pinkie, and the two ponies glared at her. "Sorry."

Rainbow let out a sigh, while the traps began falling off of her wings, and she said, "Let's just leave… _ow_ … before something worse… _ow_ … happens… _**ow**_ _! Pinkie!"_

* * *

 _Limbo_

A smirk appeared on Rowan's face, and he said, " _This actually looks very familiar to me."_

Casey, who was trying his best to ignore the burning pain coming from his broken hind legs, simply looked up at Rowan, with an expression of confusion and anger.

" _This reminds me of the way your father looked before he died."_

The young pony blinked his watered-up eyes a few times, and said, "W-What do… you mean? It was… Tirek who…"

Rowan let out a chuckle, and replied, " _Tirek's battle with Twilight may have resulted in the demolition of your house, Casey, but_ _ **I**_ _was the one that killed your father, who had arrived to try saving your mother after he'd been talking to somepony I don't know about_ …"

Casey suddenly remembered a part that Beck had talked about in his story, where he'd come across a middle-aged pony trying to find his son, but a nearby scream had caused the pony to leave before Beck had a chance to help.

" _Why else do you think there were no bodies to be found, or that only his glasses remained when you finally showed up to your house?"_

Then, before his victim could respond, the cloaked pony raised Casey up in the air once more, and said, " _You should honestly be thanking me right now, Casey... I'm about to reunite you with your parents."_

Casey coughed a few times, and he asked, "But… why… did you…"

Rowan gave a small shrug, and replied, "It's what I was created for, Casey, and unfortunately, your parents were at the wrong place at the wrong time."

" _Twi….light…"_ whispered Casey, looking around everywhere, trying to find any sign of her.

"Hmmm? Oh, right... _You'll never see your girlfriend again,"_ taunted Rowan. " _And how sad that you never got to tell her how you felt…"_

He watched as Casey fell back down to the ground, causing him even more pain, and with a wide smile, the cloaked pony said, " _If it wasn't for Evil Stardust letting me out of that blasted thermos, I wouldn't have been able to head over to your world, where I was able to plant the idea in your head about creating that pill on the night you were at the balcony… and from what I can tell, you certainly drank a_ _ **lot**_ _of it."_

Realizing that he'd allowed this to happen while being upset with Twilight about Beck, Casey found himself asking one more question.

"W-why would you do this to me?"

A scowl appeared on Rowan's face, and he replied, "If it wasn't for _you_ warning Twilight and her friends about going into the room where I turned five of them into statues, my plan of taking over that world would have been successful… not to mention that you ended up bringing that damm gold pony into all this."

"Then, why… even send me over there… in the first place?"

To his surprise, Rowan looked momentarily confused, and the sinister pony said, "I honestly don't know _why_ or _how_ you ended up in Stardust's world instead of someplace else… and frankly, I could care less, so if you're done talking, then…"

" _You'd better get the hell away from him, you son of a b****h."_

Rowan turned around, and found himself looking at Stardust, as well as the two versions of Starlight and Twilight, and the rest of Casey's friend, which brought a sense of hope to the young pony.

" _You… all… came…"_

As for Rowan, he let out a sarcastic laugh, and said, "If _either_ of you _damn_ ponies take one more step, I'll end Casey's life in an instant… as well as the life of his special somepony, who's currently up above all of us."

Everypony turned their heads up to see Casey's Twilight, who was floating unconciously in the sky, and the sinister pony growled, " _You're all worthless losers who were put on this earth to serve those more powerful and greater… those like_ _ **me**_ _."_

Stardust was about to give him a witty remark when suddenly, in a confident tone, Casey said, "You're _wrong_ , Rowan."

Then, as Rowan began walking over to him, the young pony continued to speak. "They are _not_ worthless, and are _not meant_ to serve villains like you…. I've seen these ponies do great things, and year after year, they've been able to find a way to save Equestria from those who were somewhat like you: Nightmare Moon, Sombra, Tirek, Chrysalis… even pre-reformed Starlight and pre-reformed Discord… in fact, _you're_ the one who is worthless, so-"

"I applaud your attempt at a noble speech," interrupted Rowan. "But it's not going to do you _any good_ , Casey, so why… why… why are you chuckling like that?"

With a wide grin across his face, the young pony replied, "You're also stupid for letting yourself be distracted so easily."

 _ **Wham!**_

Then, before Rowan could yell at Casey, both versions of Starlight, as well as Twilight's other self, fired an energy blast combination that sent him flying a few feet away, which also resulted in Twilight quickly falling -

" _I've got her!"_ cried Pinkie, running over to sucessfully catch Twilight with her hooves. "Wow, she's easier to save than Stardust."

When Rowan tried to get back up, he found himself looking at the one who represented balance, who was also aiming Kronos' staff at him, and he said, " _Go ahead,_ send me to that damn _Smile HD_ world again… because ponies like _you_ can't bring yourself to kill someone like me."

"Well, that's where you're wrong," replied Stardust, with a smirk on his face. "Because I'm not _all pony_ … and when it comes to murder, I can make an exception if the culprit's someone who greatly hurt the ones I care about."

Then, the gold pony fired a deadly energy blast at Rowan, and after seeing that he was gone, Stardust dropped the staff while making his way back over to Casey, who was now starting to become unconcious because of the pain in his hind legs.

"Star… light…" muttered Casey, as his friend began to place him on top of herself. "I… need to…"

"Just go to sleep, Casey, okay?" asked Starlight, in a soft tone. "You'll wake up in a better place than this."

" _Not… yet…"_ mumbled the drowsy pony, who felt his eyelids closing heavily, and said one last thing before he was knocked out cold. " _Have to tell… Twilight that… I…_ "


	23. A Special Night

**My Little Pony: Seeds of the Past**

 _Chapter 23 - A Special Night_

 _Author's Note: "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" belongs to DHX Media and Hasbro while Stardust Balance was created by the Warrior of Twilight, and Beck was created by FanficFan920._

* * *

 _Several Hours Later_

When Casey opened up his eyes, he wasn't surprised to see that he was back in the hospital, but what _did_ surprise him was seeing the self-propelled wheelchair placed in the corner of the room.

"That's what you'll be using for the next few weeks."

Standing at the edge of his bed was Starlight, who made a gesture to his hind legs, and Casey saw that they had both been placed into an orthopedic cast.

"Well, I guess I'll have plenty of time, then, to work on my kite flying," said Casey, and the two of them shared a quick laugh together before he noticed that she was his only visitor. "Where's everypony else?"

"Waiting for us back at the castle," replied Starlight, as she started to bring the wheelchair over to him. "Also, before you ask, Twilight is fine… before I left, she was helping Applejack and Rainbow with their, um… _mouse trap_ dilemna."

Then, the purple unicorn used her magic to help place Casey into the transportation device, and asked, "Think you can handle it?"

"I'll be good, Star, don't worry," assured Casey, putting his hooves to both sides of the wheelchair in order to turn the wheels, and he headed towards the door in reverse.

"Hopefully this is the end of worse things that can happen to- _gaah_ _hh!_ "

Suddenly, the door was pushed open by somepony, which resulted in smacking against the back of Casey's head, and as he groaned in irritation, whoever had walked in cried, " _Oh, my gosh, Starlight, are you… wait a minute…_ you look fine."

The purple unicorn nodded her head, and she replied, " _Yeah, of… course I am,Trixie."_

"Well, then why are you in the hospital?" wondered Trixie, and Starlight made a gesture towards Casey, so the azure unicorn turned around to look at him. " _Ohhhh…_ okay… um, who is he exactly?"

"I'm Casey," said the injured Earth Pony, with a slightly annoyed facial expression. "We've met, like, _five_ times."

A confused Trixie looked over at Starlight, who added, "He's Twilight's _special somepony_ …"

"She has one now? Since when?"

Casey rolled his eyes, and he said, "Never mind, Starlight, let's just go back to… aw, shoot, wait… can you call up the nurse real quick? I don't want to leave without my medicine."

"Sure, Casey," replied Starlight, and she started looking for the call button while Trixie noticed a single-button remote on the hospital bed.

"Relax, Starlight, Trixie's got you covered," assured the illusionist, and she pressed the button with her hoof, but instead of calling out for the nurse, it caused the door to open automatically, thus whacking Casey in the back of his head again. " _Whoops… heh-heh, my bad…"_

* * *

 _Twilight's Castle_

After putting one last band-aid over the area that a mouse trap had beem stuck to, Applejack let out a sigh of relief, and said, "Thanks for helpin' us get rid of these irritatin' things, Twilight… it was more than what _Rainbow_ did, anyway."

"Well, I _was_ the one who _actually_ knocked the door down," pointed out the blue pegasus, who was making sure that her wings were completely trap-free. " _Ugh_ , as if being a pink pony was bad enough."

Suddenly, Pinkie Pie entered the room right as Rainbow had finished her sentence, and asked, "What's wrong with being a pink pony?"

"Oh, no, I didn't mean _you_ , Pinkie," replied Rainbow. "It was about Beck making me - _hey, wait a sec, Applejack, did you took the last band-aid?"_

"Yeah, so what? I had a lot more traps on me than you," said the orange pony, and Rainbow groaned before turning over to Twilight.

"Please _tell me_ you have a few more extra ones."

An amused Twilight rolled her eyes, and she replied, "I think I know where some might be, just wait here a moment."

As the young alicorn walked away, Applejack shook her head at the blue pegasus, and said, "Next time we gotta split up, I'm pickin' either Twi or Casey as my partner."

 _###########_

Twilight was almost a few inches away from her bedroom door when a familiar voice from behind asked, "So, how are you feeling, princess?"

"My chest still stings a little, but - _aaaggghh!_ " cried Twilight, after turning to see who was behind her. _"Evil Stardust!_ "

Before she could even use her magic as a means of defense, Stardust quickly replied, "Whoa, whoa, just _take it easy_ for a second, Twilight… I'm the _good_ and _actual_ Stardust, not the one who got sucked into a can."

It took a moment for Twilight to relax after seeing that Stardust's eyes were not as dark and sinister as his other self, and she sheepishly said, "Sorry about that. I just thought you were him at first because of the scar over your right eye."

A frown appeared on Stardust's face, and the gold pony said, "The first thing I'm going to have your Starlight do when she gets back is to get rid of-"

"Oh, no, I didn't mean to make you upset," replied Twilight. "Actually, now that I know it's _you_ … I think it looks nice on you… the other me might say the same thing."

"Really?" said a surprised Stardust, but then, to her surprise, he suddenly looked upset again, and before Twilight could say anything, he asked, "Were you going to your room?"

" _Yeah,_ for some band-aids, but why do you look so-"

As Stardust walked past the young alicorn, he simply stated, "Wait right here."

Then, Twilight watched him carefully enter her bedroom, closing the door once he was inside, and she said, "Um, is everything-"

 **[Insert sound effects after Pinkie Pie rushes into the furniture store from the episode "** _ **The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows**_ **"]**

" _Wow!_ I didn't know you had animals in your room, Twilight," said Pinkie Pie, who was now walking up to her friend, but before Twilight could respond, the door suddenly flew off of its hinges, followed by a familar pony running out of the room as fast as he could. "Hey, wait a sec, isn't that…"

" _Get your [BEEP] arse back here!_ " yelled Stardust, who was now running after the pony he'd been beating the heck out of.

Twilight let out a nervous gulp, and said, "Pinkie, you go get the band-aids for Rainbow Dash… I have to help Stardust."

So, the purple alicorn quickly hurried in the direction that her friend had gone in, but once she'd caught up to them, she found herself looking at a pissed-off Stardust, thrashing around in a magical energy bubble, while her other self stood in between him and a roughed-up Beck.

"I highly recommend that you go back to your dungeon cell that you were sentenced to be in," said Stardust's girlfriend, giving Beck a stern expression. "Unless you'd rather I _not_ keep my special somepony confined-"

"If that means being away from _him_ , then I'll take it," exclaimed Beck, and before anypony could say anything else, he ran as fast as he possibly could down into the dungeon.

Then, after locking himself back in his cell, a heavy-breathing Beck said, _"Phew… okay… I should be safe down here now…"_

"Oh, I would have to disagree with you on that, little pony… especially since it's _my_ turn to watch you again."

Beck turned around, and found himself looking at Discord, who was dressed up as some sort of scary-looking clown that made Beck almost wish he was back with Stardust.

"Would you like a balloon or a paper boat, Becky?"

* * *

Back upstairs, a few seconds after Beck had run away, Twilight watched her other self have a telepathic conversation with Stardust, who eventually nodded his head slowly, and his girlfriend let out a sigh before releasing him from the bubble.

"Um… thanks for, er, saving me, Stardust," said Twilight, unsure as to what his reaction to her sentence was going to be.

"Of… course… Twilight," replied Stardust, who was now taking a few deep breaths. "But once your Starlight brings Casey back… me and my Twilight are leaving…"

Twilight nodded her head, and looked at her counterpart, who assured her that everything was going to be fine.

Or, at least she hoped it would.

 _##############_

When Casey and Starlight approached the castle steps, the young pony looked at her with a sheepish expression. "Um, Star? Would you mind helping out - _thank you_."

"No problem," replied Starlight, who used her magic to safely levitate Casey up to the entrance platform. " _Soooo…_ before we go inside… are you going to tell Twilight… the _L_ word?"

Casey sighed, remembering that she'd been there when he had talked to Evil Stardust, and he said, "I will… soon… a, um, new friend of mine actually helped me figure out _how_ I was going to do it."

"Oh? Who would that be?" wondered Starlight, as she opened the door, and the two of them made their way inside.

Casey was about to answer when, suddenly, a familiar voice cried, " _Surprise! Happy birthday!_ "

Twilight and the rest of the Mane 6 (minus Pinkie) sighed in slight annoyance while Stardust and his girlfriend rolled their eyes, and Applejack said, "His birthday ain't until a few more days, Pinkie Pie."

"Oh… _oops_ ," chuckled a sheepish Pinkie. "Um, just forget I said that, okay, Casey?"

A chuckling Casey just nodded his head as he wheeled himself closer to them, and Fluttershy said, "Um… does that mean you'll have to-"

"Celebrate it in this thing?" finished Casey, and the yellow pegasus nodded her head. "Afraid so… but it's not gonna stop from enjoyin' it the best I can."

"Glad to see you're in such high spirits, sugarcube," said Applejack, who ruffled his hair a little bit with her hoof. "Now, pardon if I seem rude or anythin', but I feel like gettin' some shut-eye now… so g'night, everypony, and see y'all tomorrow."

Rarity was the next pony to head out of the castle after making sure Casey would be fine, and the ones after were Fluttershy, Rainbow, and Pinkie, which left only Stardust and Twilight's counterpart.

"So… I guess this means you're not going to my world anytime soon, huh?" said Stardust.

Casey nodded his head, and replied, " _Yeaaahhh,_ it's probably for the best… since I'm going to be using my free time to work on, er, _other things_ …"

Taking a quick glance at Starlight before going back to Casey, Stardust said, "Glad to hear… in the meantime, I'm gonna pick up on what AJ said, and take myself up to my room… in my own world… so, good night, and see you in a few days."

To Casey and Starlight's surprise, Stardust headed up the stairs that led to the library rather quickly, and Casey asked, "Is he okay?"

"Yeah, don't worry, he's just a lot more tired now than how he was back when you first met him," replied Twilight's other self, and after she told the three of them good night, the purple alicorn followed after Stardust.

Then, Casey was about to speak when Starlight suddenly said, "Right then.. I'm gonna leave you two alone to talk since, uh, things might or might not to be fixed between you both… _soooo_ , good night!"

She teleported away before either of them could respond, and as the two ponies looked at each other, Twilight said, "I'm sorry for-"

"No, no… it's _my_ fault," replied Casey, with a saddened expression. "I, uh, never should've left… let alone, _argued_ with you in the first place, Twilight… so _I'm_ sorry, and I hope that-"

However, his apology was cut short by the young alicorn embracing him lovingly, and she said, "Welcome home…"

 _Heh, yeah,_ thought Casey, as a warm smile appeared on his face. _It's glad to be home._

But then, as he watched Starlight head up the set of stairs to her own bedroom, an idea popped into his head.

 _I know what I'm going to do tomorrow._

* * *

A few seconds after Stardust and Twilight had returned to the library in their world, the gold pony groaned before saying, "Ah, _damn it_ , I forgot to ask their Starlight to get rid of this scar for me."

Then, to his surprise, Twilight said, "Actually, Jack… I, um, kind of like it…"

Before Stardust could say that her other self had told him the same thing, he was surprised to see her blush so heavily in a matter of seconds.

"Which, uh, also reminds me… I think now is the right place to talk about… as, um, your kind say… you giving me to-"

Stardust quickly held up his hoof, and Twilight closed her mouth. "I understand you loud and clear, love… that, um…"

 _Don't screw this up, Stardust, don't screw this up,_ thought the human-turned-pony, who was figuring out what the rights word were for him to say. _Um, Starswirl, you got some last-minute advice?_

 _..._

 _Thanks a lot,_ thought Stardust, who rubbed the back of his neck with his front left hoof as Twilight said, "You've _never_ … well, okay, _we_ have never kissed _that_ way before… s-so I'm wondering _why_ … and if you... meant…"

 _ **[Insert "**_ _At Long Last, Love_ _ **" by Danny Elfman]**_

"Twilight… love…" Stardust quickly placed his girlfriend's head upward before it went down completely, and he said, "First of all, what happened… between us… it was _100% real_ … and, er… the reason I _haven't_ done it before is because… well... usually, in the _actual_ human world, doing _that_ leads a lot of couples to eventually…"

Although he was having some trouble speaking to her, the young pony felt relieved that he wasn't a human being during this type of conversation; otherwise, he probably would've eventually earned himself a ticket to Hell.

"So… you _don't_ regret doing it, right?"

"Of course I don't, love," replied Stardust,: who could almost feel himself burning up while talking about this. "I just… eh… prefer not to have certain _thoughts_ about you just yet…"

Then, the gold pony started to feel embarrassed, along with his face being redder than usual, while Twilight said, "Well, there's no need to… feel ashamed or anything about it, Jack… I mean, isn't it natural for, uh, you to feel that way about-"

"Yes, but that's just it, love," replied a red-faced Stardust. "I mean, don't get me wrong, I would not... _object_ to doing it again… especially with someone so beautiful and-"

Suddenly, he found himself being cut off by Twilight's unexpected kiss, and… at first, it started off slow between them since she was mostly concerned with helping him feel more relaxed and less stressed out about the whole thing.

However, their strong love for one another caused the young couple to make their kissing more passionate, and soon enough, Stardust couldn't help but bring one of his hooves up to Twilight's face, with her doing the same with him, as their tongues began to explore the other somepony's mu-

 _ **Cut off music at 1:30**_

" _Oh, hey, Star, so I was fighting with Vegito Blue in_ _ **XV 2**_ _, and I wondered if you and Casey were able to - aaaaaggggghhhh!"_

Stardust and Twilight quickly broke apart from each other, but Spike was already long gone at that point, doing whatever he could to erase the image of what he'd just saw out of his mind.

" _Stardust? Twilight? Why is Spike screaming like he saw - aaaaaggghhh! Evil Stardust!"_

 _Oh, you've got to be [BEEP]-ing kidding me_ , thought Stardust, and he said, "Pinkie, just relax, I'm not actually-"

" _Don't you say one more word, evil pony, or I'll use Starlight on you the same way I used Unicorn Twilight on the Changelings before they became all good and not evil!"_ cried Pinkie, now holding onto a confused Starlight as if she were a weapon, and aiming the unicorn's horn at Stardust, who rolled his eyes.

"Alright, that's it, I'm going back to have the other Starli- _ow! Pinkie!_ "


	24. Making Progress

**My Little Pony: Seeds of the Past**

 _Chapter 24 - Making Progress_

 _Author's Note: "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" belongs to Hasbro and DHX Media, Stardust Balance was created by the Warrior of Twilight, and Beck's creator is fellow FF writer FanficFan920._

 _I also apologize for any OOC moments that may have occured in this story._

* * *

The next morning, Starlight wasn't surprised to find Casey already in the library, trying to activate the Crystal Mirror.

"It hasn't even been close to 24 hours since Stardust left, and you're already going to see him?"

To her surprise, Casey began to shake his head, and he was starting to chuckle. "No, but I'm glad you're here, Star, because there's something I want to show you."

While he started to make a few final adjustments, Starlight rolled her eyes, and smirked at the now-crippled pony. "I already know what the inside of his Twilight's castle looks like."

"We're _not going_ to Stardust's world," replied Casey, and Starlight became confused.

"Well, then, where _are_ we going?"

After turning on the Crystal Mirror, the light-orange pony looked at Starlight, and a smile appeared on his face as he said, "You'll see…"

 _#############_

When Twilight entered the dungeon to check on Beck, she was surprised to find him backed up against the corner of the cell, muttering, " _You'll float too… you'll float too…"_

Before she could ask if he was okay, Discord suddenly appeared next to Twilight, and she frowned after seeing that he had a smug look on his face. "You were _supposed_ to just keep an _eye_ on him."

"Well, I can't exactly _place_ my eye on him, Twilight," replied the draconequs. "But I did watch over your sole prisoner to make sure nothing bad happened… and as you can see, no harm done to anypony."

As Beck continued to mutter quietly to himself, Twilight gave Discord a half-eyelids closed expression, and he said, "Alright, fine, I might have had some more _fun_ with Beck to get back at him for what he did to Fluttershy and you and the others. Was that so wrong of me?"

"I want Beck to learn from his mistakes, Discord, not have him sent to the cuckoo house."

The draconequs sighed, and he replied, "Okay, we'll do this _your_ way, Twilight."

Then, after Discord snapped his fingers, which caused him to vanish in the blink of an eye, Beck let out a sigh of relief. "Thank _goodness_ , I thought that he was never going to leave… good going there, princess."

"You're welcome," replied the purple alicorn,even though she was still frowning. "But I just can't believe why you choose to continue hating me because-"

"I don't _hate_ you, princess… or, at least, not as much as I used to a few weeks ago."

Hearing Beck say that made Twilight feel surprised, so as she waited for him to continue, the middle-aged pony let out a sigh before saying, "I _want_ you to understand how I feel about losing nearly everypony that I care about, but I also don't want to lose my life just yet, and I think I got roughed up pretty good by your special somepony, as well as that pony who I'm still not sure was the _actual_ Stardust or his evil counterpart…"

Then, he took a moment of silence as he thought about his loved ones, but it was interrupted by Twilight asking, "Well, do you think that what you've done recently is what _they_ would have wanted?"

Beck brought up his head to look at her, and he slowly gave his response. "What exactly do you mean by that?"

"That I'm not sure about your family particulary enjoying what they see you doing from wherever they are at," explained the purple alicorn. "And since we're talking like two normal ponies, I would like to add that while I haven't lost _everypony_ that I care about, I _do_ know what it's like to lose a special somepony."

Noticing Beck's confusion, Twilight added, "I watched Casey sacrifice himself to save me and Stardust, along with the rest of his friends, and it didn't take me long to realize that I'd never see him again… I would never be able to tell Casey how I truly felt about him…"

The imprisoned pony had no idea what to say since he had no idea something like this happened to Twilight, but as his mind continued to show memories of his loved ones, he eventually said, "Yeah, well, at least you were able to have him somehow return, princess… my family's been gone for years, and there's no way that they'll ever come back."

"Well, yes, that is true… but all of the positive memories you have that involve them will always be with you in your mind, and in your heart," replied Twilight. "There is a reason why your parents, wife, and best friend loved you… they saw something different than what any other pony saw when looking at or talking about you… and I'm sorry that you can't watch your son grow up into a wonderful stallion, but wherever your wife is at right now, have her see the pony that she wanted the father of her colt to be…"

Beck felt his eyes starting to tear up, but he wasn't able to stop himself from saying, "Alright, princess, you… m-made your point… just leave me here to…"

 _ **[Insert "Tears of Life" from Pokémon around 3:07 mark]**_

However, to his surprise, Twilight had decided to open the cell door, and as he found himself starting to cry, the young alicorn wrapped her front limbs around his body, giving Beck a comforting embrace.

"W-why are… you… I don't deserve…"

"No pony deserves to grieve alone," replied Twilight, and as she gave him a soft pat on the back, all of the _positive memories_ that were in Beck's mind eventually caused the Earth Pony to break down, with Twilight there to offer him a shoulder to cry on.

################

" _Casey? What… what_ _ **is**_ _this place?"_

Seeing that Starlight had stopped walking, Casey wheeled himself back to where she stood, and he replied, "Beautiful, isn't it?"

They were currently standing in the middle of a grassy field, with the sight of snow-covered mountains in the distance, as well as a river that seemed to go all around the entire area, and as Starlight continued to look around, she said, "I'm not even sure if that word is good enough to do it justice… which brings me to ask _again_ … _what_ _ **is**_ _this place_?"

An amused Casey smiled at the purple unicorn, and he replied, "Well, I don't exactly have a _name_ for it just yet, but… um, remember the place where _this_ happened?"

Starlight nodded her head after Casey took a quick glance at his hind legs, and he said, "Well, that only exists because it's what _Rowan_ thought of… in reality, this world is nothing but pretty much a blank canvas, so it's up to whoever is in here to ' _create art'_..."

He gestured to everything that was around them, and said, "This is my _art_ , Starlight… or, in other words, the place that has all of my favorite things… most of which were because I hung out with Stardust so much, and believe me, he showed me a _lot_ of stuff… but yeah, this is where I can do things that I can't really do in our world or Stardust's world."

Starlight tilted her head to the side, and asked, "What do you mean by that?"

" _Pika-pika!"_

Suddenly, the purple unicorn watched as a cute short, and chubby rodent-like creature came from out of nowhere, and leaped into Casey's lap.

"Starlight, this is my friend, Pikachu," said Casey. "He's an electric-type Pokémon from an anime that Stardust introduced me to."

Starlight just looked at the two of them, and Casey let out a sigh. "I'll explain later… um, you mind givin' us another few minutes, Pikachu?"

" _Pi-ka pipi pika!"_ said Pikachu, and as Casey affectionately rubbed the top of his head, he made an adorable noise that caused Starlight to smile.

Then, the electric mouse hopped back onto the grass-covered surface, and Starlight watched him head over to join several other cute creatures that she had never seen before.

"So… your, uh, world has… _Pokémon?_ "

Casey chuckled, and he replied, "Well, for the most part, yeah, but there's also a fun area that I can't really show you now since I'm in a wheelchair-"

"Does Stardust know about this place?" wondered Starlight, assuming what his answer was going to be since, to her, the two Earth Ponies were apparently so close.

"Well, no, not just yet," replied Casey, now shaking his head.

A surprised Starlight looked around her friend's world once more, and she said, "Huh… so, I guess Twilight was the-"

"Nope, I haven't told her yet, either," admitted the light-orange Earth Pony. "The only ones who know so far are me…"

Casey took a moment to look at his wristwatch before continuing his statement. "... and, as of almost five minutes ago, _you_ … which means that, for the moment, it's just the two of us who know about this."

At first, Starlight found herself feeling touched by this, but confusion still remained in her mind, and that caused the purple unicorn to ask, "Well, not that I'm complaining or anything, Casey, but why did you pick _me_ as the first pony to see this place?"

Casey let out a sigh, knowing that he would've been asked this question by her, so the young pony replied, "Because I haven't exactly been fair to you when it comes to spending quality time together, which means that I have a _lot_ to make up for…"

Then, in the blink of an eye, Casey handed her a string to a kite that was already flying high up in the sky, which brought a smile to Starlight's face, and after showing her his own kite, he said, "Also, I _did_ tell you in the hopsital that we'd have plenty of time for me to work on my kite flying, so why not start right now?"

Starlight nodded her head, but as the two of them began to get ready, she started to feel bad about the way she had been treating Stardust lately.

 _I'll talk to him when I see him at Casey's party… I just hope Stardust won't still be upset about me giving him a scar._

* * *

 _It's great that we'll soon be connected  
With a king who'll be all-time adored_

As an army of hyenas continued to march forward in perfect synchronization, they looked up (row-by-row) at their leader, who was sitting on top of a rocky platform that was high above them.

 _"Of course, quid pro quo, you're expected,"_ sang Stardust, who had a wide smile on his face, and he made a _throat-slitting_ gesture with his hoof.

 _To take certain duties on board_

 _The future is littered with prizes_

 _And though I'm the main addressee_

 _The point that I must emphasize is_

 _You won't get a sniff without me!_

Then, he leaped off of the platform, and after landing safely on the rock-made surface, Stardust scowled at a few of the hyenas before jumping onto several other platforms that were rising up from the ground.

 _So prepare for the coup of the century (Oooh!)  
Be prepared for the murkiest scam (Oooh... La! La! La!)_

 _Meticulous planning (We'll have food!)  
Tenacity spanning (Lots of food)  
Decades of denial (We repeat)  
Is simply why I'll (Endless meat)_

 _Be king undisputed (Aaaaaaah...)  
Respected, saluted (...aaaaaaah...)  
And seen for the wonder I am (...aaaaaaah!)_

 _Yes, my teeth and ambitions are bared (oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo)  
Be prepared!_

 _Yes, our teeth and ambitions are bared -  
Be prepared!_

Then, Stardust lifted his head up so that he could let out a sinister, evil laugh. _"Hahahaha… hahahahahaha… hahahahahaha_ _ **-**_ _"_

" _Jack! What are you doing up there?"_

After hearing the voice of his special somepony, Stardust blinked his eyes a few times, and instead of being on top of a rocky platform that was surrounded by talking hyenas, the gold pony found himself in the back outdoor area of her castle, standing on top of a log that was stuck into the ground because it was part of the (second)training course that Twilight had created for him and their friends.

Before the alicorn could ask him again, Stardust swiftly jumped off the log, landing right in front of Twilight, and he said, "Why, if it isn't my beautiful princess descending from on high to converse with her warrior."

A frown appeared on the slightly confused alicorn's face as she replied, "I had hoped you'd be inside with me in the castle to welcome Sunset since today _is_ the day she planned on visiting us…"

'That was _today_?" gasped Stardust, who began shaking his head after letting out a sigh. "Oh, dear… it must've slipped my mind."

Before Twilight could respond to why he was speaking in a more rougher voice, a familiar yellow unicorn was making her way towards them. " _Hey, Twilight, did you_ … oh, I didn't know that Human Stardust was here, too."

 _Well, at least she's not confusing me for Evil Stardust,_ thought the gold pony.

"No, it's not, this is _our '_ Stardust'," replied the young alicorn. "He just looks like him becau-"

 _Whoosh!_

Suddenly, from out of nowhere came Rainbow Dash, who tackled Stardust to the ground, and thankfully, it wasn't close to the training course.

 _Why the [BEEP] did this have to happen to me?_ thought Stardust, groaning in annoyance and pain.

" _You better leave my friends alone!"_ exclaimed the blue pegasus. " _I haven't forgotten what you did the last time you were here, so now, I-"_

" _Rainbow, wait, it's not the evil one,"_ cried Twilight, stopping her friend from attacking him. "This is _actually_ Stardust!"

But Rainbow didn't seem to be that convinced by Twilight's statement. "I'm not falling for his tricks again, Twilight, he almost ruined… _wait a minute_ …"

She looked down at the gold Earth Pony in front of her, and said, "Say something that Stardust told me back at CHS."

 _You can't be serious,_ thought Stardust, and he replied, "Rainbow, _take it easy_ , I'm not-"

 _Wham!_

" _Answer the question!"_

"Rainbow! Why did you smack him like that?" exclaimed Twilight.

"I don't want to take any chances with this pony," replied Rainbow. "He wrote a bunch of stuff all over my house, inside and out, and made me believe that Star was the actual-"

Before she could finish her sentence, Stardust groaned, and he said, "Alright, _fine…_ I, uh… told you that we were always going to end up arguing with each other, but that it didn't mean you'll ever not be my best friend."

Then, after Stardust had said that, Rainbow took a few steps back while the gold pony got up to his hooves, and Twilight let out a sigh of relief. "Was all of that really necessary?"

"Hey, you can't blame me for being cautious, Twi-" Rainbow started to say, but then, she realized that she'd just smacked her friend across the face, which made her give Stardust a sheepish expression. "Um… _sooooo_ … no hard feelings about, uh, what I just did?"

Looking at his friend with a frown, Stardust replied, "I'll give you a three second head start… _one_ …"

" _Heh-heh, you're kidding, right?"_

" _Two…"_

Rainbow looked over at Twilight and Sunset, saying, "Tell me that he's joking."

" _Don't make me say-"_

 _WHOOSH!_

After Rainbow Dash flew away as fast as she could go, Stardust lowered his hoof to the ground, and said, " _Three_ … eh, what the _[BEEP]_ , I'm gettin' her anyway."

 _WHOOSH!_

Then, as he took off after the blue pegasus, Sunset looked over at Twilight, and asked, "What has _happened_ since the last time I was here?"

A smirk appeared on Twilight's face, and she replied, "Oh, you have _no_ idea."

* * *

 _Author's Note: "Pokémon" is owned by Shopro/Nintendo/PCI, and "Be Prepared" is owned by the Walt Disney Company._

 _Coming up next is going to be the second time where I've written a_ _very_ _long chapter, and I hope it's one that you'll enjoy._


	25. Worlds Apart

**My Little Pony: Seeds of the Past  
**

 _ **Chapter 25 - Worlds Apart**_

 **Disclaimer:** _My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic_ belongs to DHX Media and Hasbro, _Stardust Balance_ was created by the Warrior of Twilight, and _Beck_ was created by FanficFan920, while I'm the owner of these and the previous _MLP_ stories, as well as the OC known as Casey. Also, I apologize for any OOC moments that may have appeared in the story.

 **Author's Note:** Okay, so it's not as long as the "dark/graphic" chapter, but when it comes to writing chapters like this, it's a real time-consumer... with that being said, please enjoy what I believe to be one of the most special chapters I've ever written in any of my stories.

* * *

 _A few days later_

"Come on, Rarity, just give him the gift already!"

Today was the day of Casey's birthday, and he was celebrating it while being surrounded by Twilight, Spike, Starlight, the CMC, and the rest of the Mane 6, as well as Stardust, who had come with his world's versions of Twilight and Spike.

So far, almost everyone had given the light-orange pony their gifts, but for some reason, Rarity was a little hesitant in giving Casey his gift from her.

"You ain't exactly helpin' out, Rainbow," said Applejack, frowning at the blue pegasus. "Also, I'm pretty sure the cake and ice cream won't be goin' anywhere."

While Rainbow rolled her eyes, Twilight looked at Rarity, and asked, "What's wrong?"

"Um, well, it's just that I didn't expect to give it to Casey while he was in a wheelchair, darling," replied the white unicorn. "I wouldn't want him to hurt himself trying to put it on."

A smile appeared on Casey's face, and he said, "I'll be fine, Rarity, it's not going to be any trouble."

Even though she still didn't look too sure, Rarity finally handed over the gift to Casey via magic, and as he started to open it, Rainbow let out a sigh of relief, but a glare from Applejack stopped her from saying anything hurtful.

"Um, Twilight? Where's Discord?" asked Fluttershy. "I thought he would've shown up by now."

"Oh, don't worry, he's here in the castle," replied the purple alicorn. "Just finishing up his turn to watch over Beck, so I'm sure Discord will join us later on."

The young pegasus nodded her head, but she was also feeling a little curious about what exactly the draconequs was doing down below with Twilight's sole prisoner.

 _############_

" _Got any sevens?"_

Beck shook his head, and as Discord made another card appear in his own deck, the middle-aged Earth Pony asked, "You have a two in there?"

The draconequs sighed, and grumbled under his breath as he handed one of his cards over to a chuckling Beck. "Oh, don't be so amused, little pony… you're just lucky that Twilight stepped in to make sure I don't have you end up in an asylum… got an eight?"

"Son of a… yeah, I do," muttered Beck, and as Discord happily took the car from him, the Earth Pony mentally thanked Twilight for whatever she'd told Discord regarding him.

 _###################_

As he held up Rarity's gift in front of him, a wide-eyed Casey said, "Wow, this is… _beautiful!"_

It was a jet-black cloak that had several streaks of red alongsids the edges, and while Starlight assisted in helping him put it on, Rainbow let out a sigh of relief.

" _Ha!_ See, I told you he'd like it, Rarity."

Twilight looked at her, and she replied, "What?"

Now feeling a little more comfortable, the white unicorn replied, "Well, thank you, darling. I was actually inspired to make it after I saw the one worn by… um… Stardusk, was it?"

" _Star… dust…_ Stardust," said the gold pony, and he glanced over at a sheepish Starlight, who knew that they would need to have a talk later on. "You didn't also make him a fedora, did you?"

"Wha… no, of _course_ not," replied Rarity, with a slight frown. "I'm not trying to _copy_ you, Stardust, so-"

Before the two of them could begin an argument, Casey stepped in to say, " _Thank you,_ Rarity, I love it."

"You're welcome, darling, and happy birthday," said Rarity, and she walked away while Casey began to wheel himself out of the room, much to the surprise of the CMC. "Now, then… um… which one of you is the Spike from _this_ world?"

Spike was about to respond, but his counterpart stepped in front of him, and said, "Um, that would be me, Rarity, so how about we - _hey_!"

"Nice try, little dragon," remarked Twilight's counterpart, who used her magic to bring Spike's other self over to where she was.

Rarity looked back over at the Spike that was now standing in front of her, and he sheepishly asked, " _Sooooo, um…_ how are you doing?"

A small smile appeared on the white unicorn's face as she said, "I'm fine, Spikey Wikey, but I do think now is a good time to talk about… well, what you said to me several weeks ago, and what you _did."_

" _Heh, heh,_ yeah, um, that…" replied Spike, who was now feeling his face begin to warm up, and could almost hear his own heartbeat. "Well, Rarity, I… figured if that'd be the last time I saw you, then I should let you know how I've always felt about you… which is also why I, uh, decided to give you that kiss… you aren't mad or anything, right?"

To his surprise, Rarity began to giggle, and she replied, "Well, of _course_ not, darling, why ever would I be? And you _do_ remember that you did try to somewhat tell me the same thing back when you, um, grew into a rampaging dragon?"

The memories of those events appeared in Spike's mind, and he began to chuckle. " _Ohhh, yeah_ … uh, I mean, I never forgot about it. I just didn't know the small similarities between the two until now."

Then, he waited for Rarity to speak again, but she didn't say anything, so Spike knew that he had to continue.

"Does, um… that mean you and I won't be… friends or-"

Rarity chuckled again, and she ruffled the scales on his head as she said, "Of course we'll still be friends, Spikey Wikey… like I said before, friendship is forever… but, um, perhaps we could try reaching that _next step_ when we're not about to face the possibility of losing our lives?"

Feeling more relaxed now, Spike nodded his head, and replied, "Sure! Lookin' forward to it!"

"You might not be the only one," said Rarity, and before Spike could say anything else, she kissed the small dragon on his cheek before walking away, while a bunch of tiny heart began to surround his head.

" _Wow…"_

Then, Spike fell backwards until he was lying on the ground, while his counterpart - who was sitting atop Twilight's other self - muttered underneath his breath.

"Something wrong, Spike?" asked the teasing alicorn, and her loyal assistant began to frown.

"Why can't you and Star help me out with having something like that happen to me?"

Twilight let out a chuckle, and she replied, "Well, you two _did_ sing to me and our world's Rarity that one time on Hearts & Hooves Day, remember?"

Spike sighed, and he said, "Yeah, but… _I_ haven't gotten to kiss Rarity yet, or tell her how I feel about her."

"Aw, don't worry, Spike," assured Twilight. "I'm sure your moment will come one day."

 _###################_

 _Alright, buddy, just remember what Jack told you, and you'll be just fine._

After placing a special object into one of his new cloak's pockets, Casey turned himself back around, and was about to leave the room when he found himself looking at a trio of fillies.

"You okay, Casey?" wondered Sweetie Belle, and the young pony nodded his head, which made Applebloom swipe away some non-existent beads of sweat.

" _Phew!_ For a second there, we thought you weren't enjoyin' your own party."

As he began to head back, Casey chuckled, and said, "No, of course I'm enjoying it… so if you'll excuse me, there's something I have to say to Twilight."

"Really? What are you gonna say to her?" asked Scootaloo.

"Something I should've said a long time ago."

 _##############_

 _Well, here goes nothing,_ thought Starlight, who was now making her way over to Stardust.

" _Soooo_ … how's it been having that scar over your eye?"

Stardust smirked at his friend's counterpart, and he replied, "Oh, just fine, actually… except for the fact that I've had almost all of my friends attack me because they thought I was the other pony who got sucked into a thermos."

A look of guilt appeared on the purple unicorn's face. "Well, the good news is that your scar was only temporary, so it should be gone by tonight or sometime tomorrow… and, uh, I think you deserve an apology from me."

The gold pony shook his head, and replied, "Don't even worry about it, Starlight, a simple scar is nothing for me to compl-"

"No, not… just that…" said Starlight, while rubbing the back of her neck with her "I wanted to say that I'm sorry for acting so hostile towards you. I was only like that because-"

"You were jealous of me, weren't you?"

"- I was jealous of the fact that you… you… you knew already?"

Stardust chuckled at the unicorn's surprised expression, and he said, "I sort of figured it out after we came back from Anti-Equestria… plus, the other you told me that she figured this is what the issue was."

" _Of course, she did,_ " replied Starlight. "But, uh... in all honesty, Stardust, I was just upset about the fact that he always seemed to spend time with you instead of… well, me and Twilight and everypony else."

The gold pony sighed, and placed a comforting hoof on her shoulder, saying, "I can understand why you'd feel that way, Starlight, and I'm sorry for hurting your feelings, but something tells me that Casey's starting to realize, as well, that… wait a second…"

A confused Starlight watched as Stardust suddenly walked towards a bulletin board that was hanging on the wall, next to a long whiteboard that had all sorts of numbers and measurements and whatnot.

"Twilight… what is this?"

The purple alicorn made her way over to Stardust, and said, "Oh, that's something I have planned for the Friendship Festival in a few weeks-"

"No, I meant _this_ ," replied Stardust, pointing his hoof at the bulletin board, which she had used while figuring out Beck's identity.

"Oh, well, that's what I was using while trying to figure out who was capturing all of my friends," said Twilight, smiling at the thought of Stardust admiring her work. "Impressive, right?"

Stardust remained silent, for a moment, before he said, "Yes, but would you care to explain why a picture of me is listed under the _suspects_ category?"

Realizing that she'd forgotten to take the photo off, Twilight let out a nervous chuckle, and replied, "Well, um… you _do_ have a cloak."

* * *

 _A few minutes later_

Once Casey returned to the Main Hall, and saw that Twilight was talking to Pinkie, he started to take a deep breath.

 _Alright, I can do this… I can do this._

The young pony wheeled his way over to them, and said, "Hey, Pinkie… um, you mind if I talk to Twilight for a little bit?"

To his surprise, the pink pony nodded her head, and replied, "Sure, take _all_ the time you need…"

 _Boing! Boing! Boing!_

As Pinkie happily bounced away, Twilight looked over at Casey, and asked, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah… great… loving the party," replied Casey, even though he could feel his face warm up, and almost hear his own heartbeat. "Also, uh… speaking of that certain word… there's something important that I want to tell you."

"Oh? Like what?"

 _Thump-thump! Thump-thump!_

Trying his best to remain calm, and ignore the sound of his beating heart, Casey said, "Well, before I get there, I just want… to first say that… since the first time I ever laid eyes on you, I have always-"

However, before the young pony could finish his prepared speech, they heard a familiar voice say, _"Wait, so whose birthday is this party for again?"_

" _I_ _ **told**_ _you, Trixie, that it's for Casey."_

Starlight and her best friend were now making their way over to them, and Casey forced himself not to groan while Twilight said, "Oh, how… nice of you to come, Trixie… even though I don't remember delivering an invita-"

"Uh, Starlight?" said the azure unicorn, who was looking back and forth between Twilight and Stardust's girlfriend. "Please tell me I'm not the only one who sees two of her in this place."

"You aren't the only one, trust me," replied an amused Starlight. "The Twilight that's over there is from a parallel version of our world, which means that-"

Trixie let out a gasp, and cried, "So there's another pony out that also claims to be _the great, powerful, and unscareable-"_

" _Ahem!_ " The three ponies looked at Casey, who had cleared his throat, and said, "I don't mean to interrupt this conversation, but I _was_ trying to tell Twilight something important, so…"

"Oh, sorry, Casey, my fault," replied Starlight, and as she led Trixie over to another side of the room, the light-orange pony began to eat a quick slice of cake.

 _Thank Celestia I didn't get my head whacked by a door or something._

"Okay, so… what were you going to tell me again?"

Casey was about to respond when, suddenly, he felt a sharp prick on his tongue, and the young pony let out a small shriek of pain before opening his mouth to release a bee that was now flying away from him.

"How in the _frudhf difh a bee fjeok gepgle_?" said Casey, wondering how in the world did a bee get into the castle, and make its way to his slice of cake, thus allowing his tongue to be stung by it.

A confused expression appeared on Twilight's face as she asked, "Huh? What did you say?"

" _I sayth jowlll feeeth bah krek…"_ replied Casey, but then, he found himself sticking out his tongue, and the young pony realized that it was starting to swell up. _"Oh, fulff blaaaam!"_

* * *

 _Meanwhile_

 _I hate being stuck in damn traffic,_ thought Jack, as he honked his car's horn once again. _I swear to God, if these people start bursting into song, then I-_

Suddenly, his thoughts were interrupted by the vibration of his cellphone, and after seeing who the caller was, Jack swiftly answered it. "I was actually about to call you, love… yes, I know I'm late, but this time-"

 _Honk!_

Jack lifted his middle finger up in the air, and slowly began to move his convertible forward while saying, "Some people just don't have enough patience anymore, Sunset… oh, don't you even go there, I have plenty of-"

 _Honk!_

" _No one's going anywhere, asshole!"_ yelled Jack, and he rolled his eyes before continuing to speak to his girlfriend. "Okay, everyone has their limit, sweetheart…. anyway, I'm not that far from CHS, so can you go to the school rooftop? I'll be there in about, um, thirty minutes so… huh? Yes, I know today is a Saturday, but trust me, it's for a _very_ good reason."

After hearing Sunset Shimmer give her response, a sly grin appeared on Jack's face as he said, "Well, I'm certainly not planning on the two of us-"

 _HONK!_

Flipping off the driver behind him once again, Jack let out a groan, and began to head towards the nearby freeway exit. "Add another five minutes, love… yup, I'll see you soon…"

 _Forty Minutes Later_

With his car now parked in the CHS parking lot, Jack took a moment to make sure his pants pocket had what he needed, and then, the young man left the now-locked vehicle to start making his way into the school.

 _I hope everything turned out alright with your special someone, Casey,_ thought Jack. _Now, it's my turn to do something special for my girlfriend._

Once he reached the door that led to the stairs, Jack began to take those up to the rooftop, and when he got there, a smile appeared on his face after seeing the person that had been waiting so long for him.

"Took you long enough," said Sunset, and as Jack came closer to her, he was about to give a witty remark when he noticed something a little different. "What?"

"Your hairstyle looks more, um, longer and _fiery_ ," replied the young man. "Also, I see that you have a new outfit, and… wait, why do you have those wireless headphones around your neck?"

"Uh, doesn't really matter right now," said Sunset, who placed the headphones by her feet, and she laid back against the dome with her arms crossed. "So, now that you aren't stuck in rush hour traffc, can you explain to me why we're meeting here instead of our usual spot?"

Jack let out a chuckle, and he replied, "Well, I figured this would be safer and less likely of a place for some crazy villain to attack the both of…"

Sunset just silently looked at her boyfriend, not saying anything.

"Right, sorry… anyway, the reason that we're currently up here is because I have a, um… well, a special surprise for you."

A teasing smile appeared on Sunset's face, and she said, "You already tried using your brownies on me once, Jack, it's not going to work twice."

" _Ha-ha_ , good one," replied Jack, in a dry and sarcastic tone, even though he was feeling a little bit hungry now that she'd told him that.

"Well, what's the surprise, then?"

 _##################_

As Casey tried to find a way to speak better, Starlight walked back over to him and Twilight, asking, "Is everything okay?"

The purple alicorn shook her head, and replied, "After you and Trixie walked away, Casey tried to tell me something, but then he started talking all weird and stuff, so now I can't even-"

" _A ghee deun meuh tungh,"_ interrupted an irritated Casey, pointing at his swollen tongue.

A confused Starlight asked, "How did a bee sting your tongue?"

Casey was about to tell her to ask Trixie when he and Twilight both realized something.

"You can understand him?" said Twilight.

After Starlight nodded her head, Casey quickly turned her body in his direction, and cried, " _Starlithe, pleeth bii mai tramfsleiter!"_

The purple unicorn had a nervous expression on her face as she replied, "Um, I don't know if me being your translator would-"

" _Starlithe, eye am behhtttiinnth you,"_ begged Casey, knowing that he needed to have Twilight understand now how he felt about her before losing what might be his final opportunity.

Before Starlight could say anything else, Pinkie Pie suddenly cried, " _Can I have everypony's attention? Casey has something_ _ **very**_ _important to tell Twilight, but she's having trouble hearing him, so can you all remain silent while he talks to her? Thank you!"_

Then, she looked over at the young couple, and added, "There you go, Casey!"

"Um, Pinkie, I could hear him perfectly," replied Twilight, while Starlight and Casey both became nervous. "I just wasn't able to _understand_ him."

While everyone else looked at the three of them, Pinkie said, " _Ohhhhhh…_ my bad!"

Starlight was about to disagree with helping Casey when the light-orange pony gave her a pleading expression.

 _Please help me, Star,_ thought Casey, and his friend let out a sigh before whispering her response.

" _You're lucky it's your birthday today."_

Casey nodded, in agreement, so as he spoke to Twilight, the young Earth Pony would pause in order to let Starlight translate for him.

"The first time I ever saw you, Twilight, a few days after you defeated Nightmare Moon, I knew that you were special… I never felt the same way about anypony else whenever I saw or thought about you… but then, my feelings changed after I lost my parents because of Tirek…

"A few days later, I found myself hating the fact that while you got to experience the joys and wonder of a shiny new castle, I was busy grieving over the loss of my mom and dad… at one point, I thought that it was entirely your fault instead of Tirek… but I soon realized that you were only doing what needed to be done, in order to save Equestria… and everypony else you care about."

Then, Casey was about to speak again, but after seeing the way that Starlight was right now, he let out a sigh, and said, "Nebrher minthe, Starlithe… I kaine duuu tha resthe."

Starlight was about to respond, but Casey shook his head, and so, she decided to help instead by firing a tiny blast of magic at his tongue, which caused it to roll back into his mouth as he cried in pain.

" _Starlithe! Whatha hell was that for? You could have…"_ He started to say, but after hearing what he now sounded like, Casey cleared his throat, and sheepishly said, "Uh… thanks, Starlithe."

The light-purple unicorn nodded her head, and replied, "Your tongue's still gonna be a little numb for a while, but I think you're good enough to talk to her."

Casey thanked her again, and looked back at the alicorn princess. "Twilithe, you are tha best thing that has _ever_ happened to me… I learned what it was like to have friends because of you… and I'm sorry for the way I have been acting these path few days… as well as not saying what I am abouth to tell you rithe now."

Then, Casey reached into his coat pocket, and pulled out a small red box, which made Stardust quietly chuckle in amusement while Twilight's other self let out a silent gasp.

 _Jack, is he about to do what I think he's planning on doing right now?_

 _I'm not sure, love… let's just watch to see what happens ne - and, you're taking notes now... great...  
_

###################

Jack took a deep breath, and after letting it out, he said, "This, love, is the surprise that I have for you."

Sunset watched quietly as Jack pulled out a small gold-colored ring box, and she felt herself starting to blush. "Um… Jack… are you…"

"Huh? Oh, no, no, no… it's not that, Sunset," replied Jack, now feeling a little embarrassed, and he handed the small box over to his girlfriend, who was staring curiously at it. "Could you open it for me, please?"

Sunset nodded her head, and she did what he asked… which resulted in her being immediately surprised, and a warm smile appearing on Jack's face.

Inside was a beautiful sterling silver promise ring that had a diamond stone-version of her Cutie Mark, and as Jack placed his hand around her own, Sunset noticed that he was wearing one, as well, but with a different stone.

 _################_

"I love all of the friends I've made since the day we met, Twilight… and I'm in love… with you."

Then, he opened up the box, which was revealed to contain the turtle dove necklace that she'd given back to him after their argument, and asked, "Would you be… my… special somepony?"

Instead of speaking, Twilight used her magic to place the necklace around her neck, and before Casey could say anything, she delivered a soft kiss to his muzzle, with the young pony closing his eyes as he eventually returned the favor.

 _################_

"You are… amazing and… beautiful, Sunset Shimmer… and I never once imagined that I would be in a relationship with such a lovely goddess…"

Then, after he gently placed the promise ring around her finger, the young man said, "I'm not sure exactly what the future holds for both of us, but I _do_ know that, whatever happens, it will be with us always being there for each other... and I'll always love you, no matter what."

At first, Sunset was speechless, but then, a playful smirk appeared on her face, and she asked, "Even if I were to ask you to come with me and the rest of our friends on a return trip to Camp-"

"Sunset, love, if you even mention that godforsaken place, I will…"

The red-and-yellow haired teenager let out a laugh, and replied, "I was _kidding_ , Jack… you can't be the only one to have a sense of humor."

"Oh, ho, you're going to pay for that, then," said Jack, who had a sly grin on her face.

"How so?"

Instead of speaking out loud, Jack whispered his response into Sunset's ear, and as he continued to talk, her face was becoming almost as red as her hair.

" _Ow! Rarity, stop pushing!"_

" _Well, I can't help it if I want to see what the ring looks like - whoa!"_

Suddenly, their intimate moment was interrupted by the arrival of EG Rainbow and EG Rarity, both now lying on the ground after accidentally opening the door.

"Uh… hey, you two, how's it going?" greeted the athletic teenager, trying to sound casual as Jack rolled his eyes, and a red-faced Sunset tried not to laugh. "Did, um, either of you happen to see my soccer ball anywhere up here?"

 _###############_

" _Awwww, I just love happy end…"_ Sweetie Belle started to say, but then, she noticed something strange, and cried, "Oh, _come on_!"

As Casey and Twilight broke apart from their kiss, a nervous Rainbow said, "Um, you two might want to turn around."

The two of them did just that, and they saw what everypony else was now seeing, which was a swirl of silvery magic that was forming into the shape of a _very_ familiar pony… well, to everypony except Trixie, who was now hiding behind Starlight. " _Who is_ _that_ _supposed to be?"_

"Uh, hey, Kronos," greeted Stardust, making his way over to stand by Casey and his girlfriend's other self. "How's it going?"

The elderly pony, who was holding his staff once again, had an unreadable facial he said, " _I_ _told_ _you both what would happen if I needed to show up again."_

"Well, now, hold on a sec," replied Casey. "The problem was taken care of, Kronos, and we were just about to end off on a happy note until-"

Kronos looked at him, with a slight frown, and said, "I see how grateful you are for me bringing you back to life, Casey… what was the point if you ended up being _this_ close to death?"

"Hey, don't start blaming him for anything," replied Stardust. "He wasn't the one who had an evil psychopath trapped inside a damn ther-"

The elderly pony glared at Stardust, and he exclaimed, "Don't you start with me, Jack Wright… like I said, there would be consequences if I needed to show up again… and you two have no idea what I had to go through to get _this_ back… as well as having to fix the damage that Evil _Stardust_ did while using it."

"Hey, you know how I feel about your _[BEEP]_ memory erasing solution," said Stardust, now becoming irritated, but to his surprise, Kronos shook his head.

"If I did that, things will probably get much worse before they even got better," replied the elderly pony. "Instead… you two - and everypony else, for that matter - are forbidden from going into the other pony's world until further notice."

" _What?!"_ exclaimed Casey, who did not expect that to be his response. "Kronos, can't you just have us do, like, community service or something?"

"Not after everything that's happened in these worlds, along with others," replied the elderly pony. "But since it's your birthday, I'll make things a little easier for you… once you prove to me that you deserve to go see him, or have Stardust come here, then my decision will be null and void."

" _Prove_ myself? Kronos, you've seen the things me and him have done together, why else-"

Before he could continue to speak, the elderly pony interrupted by saying, "That doesn't hide the fact that I have had to restore your life _twice_ , Casey, and thankfully, it did not need to happen for a third time… but you have to start being more responsible, and spend more time in _this_ world than in _his_ … no two worlds are supposed to be the same, but you're becoming more like Stardust every time I see you."

"Okay, how in the he… _ohhhh_ … right," replied Casey, having realized what Kronos was talking about. "Well, it's not exactly the _same_ type of cloak… and I haven't cursed _that_ much."

Kronos let out a sigh, and he said, "Look, I know this seems _bad,_ but it's what's best for both your world and his… now, you have until the end of the day to spend with him, but as of tomorrow, _no one_ is to go from this world to Stardust's world. Is that understood?"

Everyone nodded their heads, but before Kronos got the chance to leave, Stardust said, "Hey, wait a second. Why haven't you told _me_ anything?"

"Because I'm currently not fond of _any_ Stardust, especially one that looks like the pony who has now given me a headache," replied Kronos, frowning at the gold pony. "And you die almost every week, so there's no reason for me to interfere in _your_ world's events…"

Then, in a darker tone, he added, "I've also given _you_ enough chances, so this will be the _last_ one… because after today, if you or _any_ Stardust causes me trouble, then I will make it so that you'll forever be stuck in the world that comes from one of _the_ worst movies ever to be made... and it rhymes with Cabbage Patch Kids... so, in a way that's easy for _you_ to understand, do not _[BEEP]_ this up."

Having finished saying what needed to be said, Kronos used the magic from his staff to make himself vanish into thin air, and once he was gone, Trixie asked, "Uh, does anypony here know what just happened?"

 **[Awesome (to me) Background Music - "Proposal" by George S. Clinton]**

Everyone else looked at Casey and Stardust, who were now facing each other, and Casey was the first to speak. "So... does that mean we've reached the..."

"The _what happens now_ part?" replied the gold pony, and he nodded his head. "Yeah, I... guess so..."

Hearing him say that made Casey realize something else. "So that means... until I 'prove myself'... this is the last time we'll probably see each other..."

Stardust was about to respond with something that involved him assuring Casey they would be able to find some sort of loophole around Kronos' ban, but to his surprise, Casey added, "I think... I'm okay with that."

"You... are?" replied Twilight's counterpart, and the light-orange pony nodded his head.

"I haven't exactly been... fair to my friends in _this_ world, Twilight, when it comes to spending quality friendship time... and from what I can tell, some of those friends haven't exactly been very happy about that..."

A look of guilt started to appear on Starlight's face, but before she could say anything, Casey continued to talk. "I've always thought about what things that you and I could do after having gone through some kind of epic adventure... instead of wondering what I could've done with the friends I have _here_..."

He was about to say more, but then, Stardust held up his front left hoof, and said, "Let me stop you right there for a second... as much as I respect and understand what you're saying to me, I am not about to let someone like Kronos have the birthday of one of my closest friends on a bittersweet note... we'll talk about ways of communication later, but right now, tell me something that you'd want the two of us to do together."

"Um... okay..." replied Casey, who took a moment to think about it, and then, a wide smile appeared on his face. "Actually, there is _one thing_ I had in mind..."

* * *

 _A few minutes later_

As Twilight magically lifted the light-orange pony onto the bird creature in front of her, she asked, "You sure about this?"

"It'll be fine, Twilight, don't worry," assured Casey. "I'm gonna be sitting down on him anyway, so it's not like my hind legs will be of much use."

Even though she didn't agree with him completely, Twilight found herself nodding her head, and he replied, "Thank you... oh, I just remembered, I never received a birthday gift from you."

A playful smile appeared on the young alicorn's face, and she said, "Well, the day's still not over yet... and I prefer to give it to you when it's only the two of us, so-"

" _Hey! You two can flirt with each other and stuff back in your world,"_ interrupted a grinning Stardust. "Right now, I got a race to win!"

Twilight and Casey shared a quick kiss with each other, and as she backed away, the young Earth Pony rolled his eyes as he said, "Dream on, _Stardusk_ , I beat you once already, and I can sure as hell beat you again!"

"The _hell_ you did," exclaimed Stardust, but before he could say anything else, Spike's other self - who was standing nearby - gave Twilight's counterpart a pleading look.

"Can I ride with him, Twilight? _Please?_ "

Twilight let out a sigh, and she reluctantly nodded her head. "Fine, but _no_ fire attacks or anything, Jack... alright?"

"Uh-huh, yeah, sure," replied Stardust, as his girlfriend used her magic to place the little dragon beside him."You ready, little bro?"

"Heck yeah, I am!" cried Spike's counterpart, now full of excitement.

Stardust looked back at Casey, with the two of them sharing a smile together, and the light-orange pony said, "Alright, the race will begin in 3… 2… 1… _go!_ "

Then, both his Pidgeot and Stardust's Charizard took off flying, and after they made a turn, the dragon-like Pokémon opened its jaws to perform a flamethrower attack.

" _Whoooo-hooo!"_

" _Jack!"_

 _ **Fade to Black… A swirl of magic appears on-screen to create two words as the background music ends...**_

 _The End_

* * *

 _ **Author's Note:**_ _So, yeah, in other words, this concludes the storyline featuring Stardust Balance as a main character in my MLP stories. It was fun to write almost 50-ish chapters about him, and I thank his creator greatly for allowing me to use Stardust in a way that made both of us happy, as well as the rest of our readers and fellow MLP fans._

 _Now, will Stardust come back? Eh, not really sure exactly… probably by the time that "A Journey Beyond Sanity" catches up to this story's timeline, which will be around the start of season 7 (for Stardust's world), and as of now, he's at the conclusion of season 5, so it'll be a while before the gold pony shows up… there are a few, um, possible loopholes that will not affect AJBS' continuity, but we'll see after-_

 _[Pinkie] Ooh, ooh, can we show them what to expect in the next story?_

 _[Me] Well… I don't know if they'll be excited to see what-_

 _[Pinkie] Oh, please, please, please, PLEASE show them a tiny sneak peek! I already have it right here, anyway._

 _[Me] What the… how did… never mind… alright, everyone, here's a sneak peek to what you can look forward to in my next story._

…

 _[Me] Pinkie? The sneak peek?_

 _[Pinkie] Huh? Oh, right, sorry, my bad!_

* * *

 _ **A few weeks later**_

" _Answer it!"_

As one of the two Storm Creatures that had entered the throne room poured a liquid from a tiny bottle into a basin, Tempest Shadow - a sinister unicorn whose horn was damaged - glanced over at the small and sheepish creature beside her, a hedgehog named Grubber that had been unsuccesful in obtaining the Princess of Friendship.

 _Whoosh!_

Once the bottle was empty, a swirl of magical and mist-like energy came out of the basin, creating a communication portal that would allow her to give a report to her boss, known as the Storm King, who was now being shown in the portal, but unfortunately, he was facing the wrong direction. _"Where am I supposed to look? I don't even know how this spell works… Tempest!"_

"Over here, your Excellency," said the commander pony, who was used to the frightening creature shown in front of her not being able to understand the way some things worked. "Turn to your… no, that's left… right, go to… move right… yeah."

The two of them were now facing each other, and after Tempest nodded her head, the Storm King said, "Oh, there you are. Here's the deal, I'm in the middle of a big rebrand here, and so far, the Storm King - that's me - is being described as, um, _intensely intimiditating_ ,but you know what? I need to back it up… you know what I need to back it up? _A_ _ **storm**_ _, that would be great_!"

The satyr-like creature brought into view an object that he was holding, which was an ancient, thin-and-purple mystical staff, and exclaimed, "You promised me magic that could control the elements, and right now, I'm holding onto… _what_? A branch, a twig, _blehh_!"

"That would be the Staff of Sacanas, your Excellency," corrected Tempest, also used to her boss acting as if the staff was like something you would find in the desert. "And it will channel the magic of the four rulers of this land… you'll soon have the power of a thousand armies."

A small and hopeful smile appeared on the Storm King's face as he asked, "So that would be a _yes_ on you locking down the pegacornicuses - whatever you call them."

 _All except for the purple one,_ thought Tempest, who avoided answering the question by saying, "Give me three days. I'll have _everything_ ready for your arrival."

A frown appeared on the Storm King's face as he gave his response to the dark purple unicorn,with his sinister tone sending chills throughout Grubber's entire body. _"Remember Tempest, only I have the power to make you whole…"_

Then, bringing the dark-purple staff back into view, the Storm King added " _Make this twig work, and you'll get your reward._ _ **Fail**_ _me, and your horn won't be the only thing that's_ _ **broken**_ _."_

"It won't be a problem," said Temepest, and she bowed to her boss, who now had a smile across his face.

" _Great! I'll just power up, grab some… and we'll…"_ replied the Storm King, but the connection between them was breaking up, so she was unable to hear the rest of what he was trying to say before the portal eventually vanished into thin air.

For a few seconds, there was only silence in the throne room, but then, Grubber found himself being the one to say, "Sorry, bad spell service. You want me to call him back?"

With tiny sparks of raw energy shooting out of her horn, Tempest scowled at the pudgy hedgehog, and to the Storm Creatures, she yelled, "Prepare my ship!"

As they hurried themselves out of the room, the damaged unicorn looked over at the other three princesses of Equestria in the room - Cadence, Celestia, and Luna - all of them now turned into stone, and she had a look of determination on her face.

 _That little pony can't hide from me forever… how far can she even get on her own?_

* * *

 _[Pinkie] DUN-DUN-DUNNNN! Wow, she is one **baaaaaaaaddd** pony... I wonder what will happen next?_

 _[Me] You **already** know what happens next, Pinkie_

 _[Pinkie] Well, yeah, but **they** don't know that I know what you know what me and the rest of my friends know-_

 _[Me] Uh, Pinkie? You mentioned something about being able to yawn the whole alphabet... can you show me how that works again?_

 _[Pinkie] Sure, I'd love to! Okay, here we go... ***starts yawning***... **ZZZZZZZZZZ**..._

 _[Me] Works every time... anyway, for those who don't know yet what the next story is about, I'm about to tell you right now... it'll be an adaptation of the MLP movie coming out in a few weeks on October 6th! Sounds exciting, right? I hope it does... anyway, I might publish a few more sneak peeks on my Fimfiction blog, but the story itself won't be put on here until I've seen the actual movie, so until then, check out the other MLP stories I've written before this, and as a reminder for fellow music lovers, the soundtrack for the movie will be released on Sept. 22, which I will **definitely** be listening to._

 _With all that being said, see you in a few weeks, and be sure to check out the actual "My Little Pony: The Movie", coming out in theaters on October 6th, 2017._

 _[Pinkie] Bye, everypony!_

 _[Me] Aaaagghh! Wha... Pinkie, I thought you were asleep!_


	26. Outtakes, Part 1

**MLP: Seeds of the Past**

 **Chapter 26 - Outtakes, Part 1**

 _Author's Note: "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" belongs to DHX Media and Hasbro, while Stardust Balance belongs to the Warrior of Twilight._

 _As shown in the chapter title, what you are about to read is my version of the "bloopers" that we've seen from the Equestria Girls movies, and will hopefully make you laugh just a little bit... if not, then I hope you simply enjoy it, then._

 _You'll also see (in part two) more bloopers, as well as different versions of certain scenes that I originally had planned one way, but ended up changing it at the last minute, or not even featuring it at all._

 _With all that being said, please enjoy!_

* * *

"These were recorded during the summer… three years ago," Beck finished, and instantly, everyone realized why he played those messages.

"You lost someone," Twilight stated.

Beck shook his head, and replied, "No, Princess, I lost everyone."

'That's what this is about?' Casey thought, while Beck continued to tell his story.

" _I had been away when it happened_ …" said the middle-aged pony, but before he could tell the princess about what happened in the past, Beck let out a sigh. "Look, Chris, I'm not sure if I can do this."

" _Don't worry,_ Beck," replied the director, walking away from his chair. "Everything will be _fine_ , trust me."

A nervous Beck glanced over at the locked-up Twilight, and said, "Yeah, but… I mean, she's freaking _Twilight Sparkle_ , for god's sake, and I'm supposed to beat the _hay_ out of her once the flashback is over? Whose idea was that in the first place?"

The director took a moment to turn himself around, swiftly glare at his sheepish co-screenwriter, and brought his attention back over to Beck. "I promise, Twilight's going to be fine… they invented the words _movie magic_ for a reason."

Before the green Earth Pony could speak, one of the film's executive producers said, "For what it's worth, pal, you're lucky that Stardust isn't in this scene."

"Yes, Jack, we're all aware of that," replied the director, rolling his eyes before placing a comforting hoof on Beck's shoulder. "I trust you, and so does she… right, Twilight?"

The smiling alicorn nodded her head, and Beck sighed before he reluctantly did the same.

" _Awesome_! Okay, we're about to come back to the present now," said the director, heading back to his chair. "In 3… 2… 1… _action_!"

 _A few minutes later_

Once Twilight's tooth had fallen out, the director lifted his megaphone up to his muzzle, and cried, _"And… CUT! That's lunch, everypony!"_

" _Phew! Thank heavens,_ I needed this break, _"_ said Rarity, who was stepping out of the cage she had been locked in, and began making her way to her trailer while Spike ran off to prepare for their scene that would be coming up next.

As Casey helped Twilight off of the table, an apologetic Beck said, "I'm so sorry, princess, I was only-"

"Don't worry, Beck, you did great," replied Twilight. "Good thing they invented blackout tooth paint, right?"

" _Heh-heh,_ yeah, definitely," said Beck, starting to feel more relaxed, and he was about to say more when a stage hand approached the princess to tell her that she was needed in the make-up department.

"I'm on my way," said Twilight, and she gave Casey a quick romantic kiss before walking away. "See you later, okay?"

The young pony nodded his head as he watched her leave, with eyes full of love and affection, and once she was gone, Casey looked over at Beck. "You want to go check out the other sets?"

"Lead the way."

* * *

As he made his way into the library, Casey was starting to feel a little sad about the fact that he really hadn't spent much time with Starlight, aside from today, because of all the fun he had been having with-

"Beedo, beedo, beedo, beedo!" cried Pinkie Pie, who swiftly hurried past him with an extinguisher in her hooves, and Casey was about to speak when Ride Along walked onto the set with a frown on his face.

"Hey, if anypony's going to make _any_ kind of siren noises, it's gonna be _me_!" cried the officer pony, before proceeding with making his own police siren sounds.

* * *

After following Starlight out of the castle, and onto the nearest clear field of grass, Casey looked at the object he was currently holding, and said, "Uh, no offense, Star, but… I don't know how to fly a kite."

"No worries, I'll teach you," replied a smiling Starlight, walking over to the light-orange pony as she started to sing a song.

 _With tuppence for paper and strings  
You can have your own set of wings  
With your feet on the ground  
You're a bird in flight  
With your fist holding tight  
To the string of your kite_

Taking another look at the kite in his hooves, an unsure Casey found himself allowing the purple unicorn to help him out.

 _Oh, oh, oh!  
Let's go fly a kite  
Up to the highest height!  
Let's go fly a kite and send it soaring  
Up through the atmosphere  
Up where the air is clear  
Oh, let's go fly a kite!_

A few feet away, the director - sitting behind the camera - let out a sigh, and muttered, "I hope this scene doesn't get cut."

* * *

 _"Ahhhh, Princess Cadance... A pleasure to meet such a beautiful alicorn, as yourself."_

A frustrated Cadance growled, "Save it… give me back my daughter now."

"No problem," replied Beck, speaking in a casual tone. "You just have to do one more thing."

"And what would that be exactly?" asked Cadence, who couldn't help but again feel a little surprised since this was not she had expected at all to come from him.

"That dart you see to your right..."

Cadance looked to her right to find a dart resting on the table.

"You just got to ram that… um…" Beck found himself unable to finish his sentence, and then, he started to laugh a little bit. "I'm sorry, Princess Cadence, I was trying to say that without sounding like a creep."

Cadence let out a chuckle, and she shook her head. "Don't worry, you're doing fine."

As Beck nodded his head, the director cried, "Alright, let's go again!"

 _#############_

"...just ram that baby into your flank and we're good."

A frown appeared on the princess' face after hearing those words, but before she could respond, Flurry Heart gave Beck a confused look after hearing the word _baby_.

"Oh, no, not you, little one, I meant the dart… wait, what are you… Flurry, no, you put that down right - _ow_!"

The baby alicorn started to laugh while Cadence had a _"ooooh, that's gotta hurt"_ look on her face after having seen Flurry Heart magically shoot the dart into Beck's right cheek.

"I didn't sign up for this," muttered the Earth Pony, bringing his hoof up to his face to remove the dart.

* * *

While Casey and Twilight couldn't believe that they had been unsuccessful in rescuing Spike from the cloaked pony, Stardust was busy dealing with things that were preventing him from going to Casey's world, aside from his belief that everything there was fine.

"Trust me, love, there's nothing left for me to say regarding how horrible _Sonic '06_ is… expect horribly long waiting times, a _[BEEP]-ed up_ camera system, too many damn glitches, and who in the hell decided to write in the script ' _princess kisses hedgehog_ '."

Stardust rolled his eyes, and added, "Thank God they basically erased that whole timeline… I mean, what kind of human would ever fall in love with a talking animal?"

"..."

Realizing that Twilight wasn't answering him, the human-turned-pony looked back at his special somepony, and said, "What?"

* * *

"I give up, Pinkie… I've failed you… I'm sorry."

The pink unicorn looked at the young alicorn, and gasped loudly as she quickly went over to her.

"Huh?! Twilight Sparkle giving up? No, no, no, that isn't something a pony like you would ever say…"

Twilight sighed in sadness, and replied, "I know it's not good to hear, Pinkie, but-"

Suddenly, she felt the pink pony's front hoofs on both of her own shoulders, and before Twilight could say anything else, Pinkie started to shake her like a baby's rattle.

"Are you okay, Twilight? You sick? Light-headed? Upset stomach? Do I need to give you some _Pony Bismal_ or _Neigh Quill_ or-"

"Pinkie, put her down before she actually _does_ have to go to the hospital," said a chuckling Stardust.

"I give up, Pinkie… I've failed you… I'm sorry."

The pink unicorn looked at the young alicorn, and gasped loudly as she quickly went over to her.

Once Pinkie stopped, a dizzy Twilight replied, "Thanks for not - _oompphh_!"

Suddenly, she felt her friend's front hoofs on her own face, and Pinkie began squeezing her facial cheeks together. "Alright, Twilight, I _need_ you to tell me if you're okay because I'm getting _really_ worried right now."

Twilight's boyfriend tried his best not to laugh out loud as he said, "Pinkie, trust me, she's fine."

* * *

Um, I think you're wrong, Pinkie… I think [ _BEEP_ ] was the word that he-"

"Rainbow Dash!" scolded Applejack, and after taking it, she added, "You should know better than to say somethin' that Twilight don't like to hear… 'sides, y'all are both wrong… cause Star actually said the word _[BEEP]_."

" _Applejack!"_ cried Applebloom, surprising everypony else as she came out of nowhere. "I can't believe you said that… when you _should_ have told him the word-"

All it took was a serious glare from the orange pony to have her little sister instantly close her muzzle while an approaching Beck said, "I still don't get why you still get words like _[BEEP]_ and _[BEEP]_ covered up, even though we've already said things like _damn_ , _hell_ … _fu_ -"

"Whoa, whoa, everypony just calm down," said the director, as he walked onto the set. "No reason for any of you to say such things."

"Except for Stardust," reminded Jack, as he laid back in his chair. "I wrote him that way."

The director let out a sigh, and he replied, "I _know_ you did, Jack, but I'm not gonna let this result into something that's not suitable for the targeted audience… something I'm sure _you_ are familiar with, yes, Mr. Perfect Harmony?"

As Jack closed his mouth, Twilight looked at Stardust, and asked, "What do they mean by-"

The gold pony shook his head, and replied, "Not a good time, love."

* * *

" _And… CUT! That's it for today, everypony. See you all tomorrow!"_

Casey, Stardust, and their girlfriends let out sighs of relief, but before either of them could say anything, a certain pony cried, " _Whoo-hoo! Party time!"_

 _Whoosh!_

" _Pinkie!"_ yelled the four ponies, who were all now soaking wet after having a barrel of water dumped onto them.

"What? Aren't you supposed to do that when everything is over?"

Stardust lifted up his fedora to self-dry it, causing some more water to splash over his head, and he replied, "That's usually done when a team wins something like the Super Bowl, Pinkie…. plus, we aren't even done yet."

" _Ohhhhh_ … I get it know," said the pink pony, nodding her head, and a few seconds later, she added, "Let me go get you all some towels."


	27. Outtakes, Part 2

**MLP: Seeds of the Past**

 _ **Chapter 27 - Outtakes, Part 2**_

 **Author's Note:** _Hasbro and DHX Media are the rightful owners of "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" while Stardust Balance and Beck belong to the Warrior of Twilight and FanficFan920. Also, the following chapter after this will be the alternate ending, so-_

 _[Beck] Hey, where's Stardust at?_

 _[Me] He's gone now… busy dealing with stuff in his own story._

 _[Beck] Huh… **** YEAH, now things can be more peaceful around here!_

 _[Me] …_

 _[Beck] Also, um, I'm liking the bloopers, but the first one with me? That's not the whole thing._

 _[Me] Well, sorry, but my head's a little fuzzy since_ _ **somepony**_ _knocked me out cold, so forgive me if my memory's not perfect._

 _[Beck] Another good reason why Stardust is gone… so, why don't I help you tell_ _ **them**_ _what_ _really_ _happened?_

 _[Me] Eh, fine, but I'm also gonna show how this stuff started… technically…_

* * *

"Uh-huh… yep… don't worry, Tara, she's gonna be fine… I give you my word… thanks… alright, I'll see you in a month… you too… good-bye."

After finishing his conversation with one of the main voice actresses, Chris turned his attention back to the script that was on top of his desk.

 _Huh, I wonder what's taking him so long to - and, speak of the devil..._

"What's this I'm hearing about a new screenwriter?" asked Jack, who approached Chris with an expression of slight irritation.

"Oh, you didn't get the memo?" replied Chris, and the executive producer shook his head, as well as crossing his arms. "Well, you see… once we got done with _A Journey's End_ , I was lost with what our villain was going to be this time, but then this guy contacted me, pitched me an idea that I liked a lot, and so, here we are."

Jack blinked his eyes a few times before he said, "Really, just like that?"

"Yep." said Chris, and before his friend could say anything else, another young gentleman entered the room, with a casual look of happiness on his face.

"Morning, C.J.! Great day for a shoot!" Bryson, the new screenwriter, said, approaching the duo.

"Same to you, Bryson," Chris replied. "Is Beck ready yet?"

"Almost. He's still getting fitted into the cloak," he explained. "I presume this is Mr. Jack Wright?"

"Indeed he is. Jack, meet my new screenwriter, Bryson," said Chris, introducing the two of them to each other, much to Bryson's pleasure.

"The honor is mine, sir. I love what you've written so far in _A Journey Beyond Sanity,_ and let me just say that you've written such an amazing story," Bryson complemented, shaking Jack's hand.

"Er… _thank you,_ but might I ask... how _old_ are you exactly?" Jack asked.

"I recently turned 17," the new screenwriter replied, speaking in a casual tone, and Jack's eyes widened a little bit.

"Isn't that a bit young for this kind of work?"

Before the newcomer could respond, Chris replied, "Hey, _Hasbro_ told me the same thing, and look at where I am now."

Jack rolled his eyes, and shook his head before turning his attention back to Bryson.

"Well, yes, I can admit that, but don't let my youthful demeanor fool you, Jack. I am _very_ serious about my work, and I'm extremely excited to work with you and Chris."

The author of _AJBS_ was about to respond when a studio intern came into the room.

"Sorry, Chris, but where - oh, there you are, Bryson… Beck is requesting your presence. The cloak has been fitted."

" _Excellent_! Excuse me, gentlemen," said Bryson as he excused himself to check on his character, and once he was gone, Jack glared at his friend in irritation and annoyance.

"Are you _kidding_ me, Chris? 17?! He's still legally a _[BEEP]-ing_ minor! Is this even _legal_?!"

The director let out a sigh, and replied, "Don't worry, Jack. I ran it by _all_ the studios, so everything is straightened out."

"Then how come I haven't heard about this kid before?"

Chris gave his friend a small shrug, and said, "No idea, I've been sending out memos to everyone. Maybe you're not getting them?"

"Well, is this character of his any good?" Jack asked, accepting that Chris had everything under control… for the moment, at least.

"See for yourself, buddy," Chris said, handing him a copy of the script.

As he flipped through it, Jack's eyes continued to get wider as he went.

"Holy hell, Chris!" Jack said, in slight awe.

A smile appeared on Chris' face as he replied, " _I know_ … good, right? You enjoy that one dark scene when-"

" _Enjoy_ it?" said the young gentleman, still surprised. "How can I enjoy reading about Twilight getting beaten to a pulp, and Spike almost suffering for Beck's vengeance? I certainly hope Stardust doesn't get wind of this, or else he'll probably express an unbridled desire for murder."

Chris nodded his head, and replied, "Noted."

 _###########_

 _[Beck] And, now here's how my first scene_ _actually_ _went when it was time to shoot it…_

 _############_

"I had been away when it happened…" said the middle-aged pony, but before he could tell the princess about what happened in the past, Beck let out a sigh. "Look, Chris, I'm not sure if I can do this."

"Don't worry, Beck," replied the director, walking away from his chair. "Everything will be fine, trust me."

A nervous Beck glanced over at the locked-up Twilight, and said, in a low voice, "Yeah, but… I mean, she's _freaking_ Twilight Sparkle, for god's sake, and I'm supposed to beat the hay out of her once the flashback is over? Whose idea was that in the first place?"

The director took a moment to turn himself around, to face Bryson. "Can you talk to your character please?"

"No problem, boss," Bryson said as he led Beck away from the set.

Then, once they were out of everyone else's earshot, he added, "Look Beck, everything's going to be fine. Twilight will _not_ be hurt in the slightest… I'd imagine I'd be in huge trouble if she was.

"All you have to focus on is your acting. You need to dig deep. I wrote you like this because I saw an opportunity with this franchise to do something different, a new kind of villain than what Rowan, Evil Stardust, or Elixir and Roxnor were. I chose you because I see that kind of potential in you. You just have to unlock it. Think you can do that?"

"Alright, if you're sure… thanks, Bryson," Beck thanked.

"It's no problem, buddy," replied Bryson, who wrapped one of his arms around the base of Beck's neck. "Now let's go and make a great story."

 _###########_

" _Me and my best friend were supposed to go to that game together…_ "

Twilight couldn't help but feel just a little sorry for him, and she was about to say that when Beck suddenly gave her a very dangerous look.

"And it's all because of _YOU_ that won't happen," growled Beck, who then full-on punched the purple alicorn in the face, and making almost everyone else speechless…

… aside from Beck, Twilight, and the trio of humans that were nearby, but there was a reason for this.

Bryson had actually requested (to Jack's slight irritation) that nopony but Beck and Twilight know the true nature of the current scene they were shooting (at least, in the beginning) so the reaction would be more genuine.

"Just like what Chris Pratt did for that one scene in _Jurassic World_!'

 _###############_

" _Twily_!" yelled Shining Armor, while Beck was starting to get more upset.

"Because of _YOU_ , I won't get to see my parents again," he punched her again, this time in the chest with his other hoof.

As Twilight began to whimper in pain, Casey pulled even harder on his cage bars, trying to free himself, and he managed to do so.

" _Um… that's not in the script,"_ whispered Jack, and Chris started to become concerned.

The bars of Casey's cage split open like cardboard, and the truly enraged stallion lunged at Beck like a bull seeing red.

"[ _BEEP_ ]!" Beck yelled genuinely when he saw Casey had gotten free, and a few seconds later, the two had ended up racing around the entire soundstage, followed by Twilight, Chris, Jack, and Bryson,who were all urging the younger earth pony to calm down.

 _#################_

"What the [ _BEEP_ ] was that?!" Casey yelled at the director, enraged. "How in the _****_ is any of this stuff happening? Stardust told me this show was for kids!"

"Oh, that's a good line," Beck noted, taking out a copy of the script and a pen while Chris talked to the light-orange pony. "We should trademark that."

"We didn't _tell_ any of you... besides Twilight and Beck, of course, because we wanted everyone's first reactions to be genuine," explained Chris.

Casey grumbled in apprehension, and he replied, "Eh, _fine.._. Just don't pull any of this [ _BEEP_ ] again. I nearly lost it there."

As he walked away, Beck let out a sigh of relief, and said, "Good thing Stardust doesn't come to start filming until tomorrow, right?"

* * *

 _[Set of Canterlot]_

He placed the grappling end of the rope, along with the rope spindle, into the dirt, tugging on it to make sure it was stable, and tied himself to the other end of the rope while mentally singing a familiar tune for the situation.

 _Dun-dun-dun, dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun!_

"All this for a Mission Impossible reference?" Jack muttered as he watched the tale unfold.

 _#############_

Moments later, the cloaked pony was making his way down the cliff, aiming for one of the castle's many balconies, the night being his protection from detection.

However, what he didn't plan on was the rope starting to give way about halfway down.

 _Holy [BEEP],_ thought the cloaked pony as he fell, but unfortunately, the rope was slightly longer than what was needed, causing Beck to faceplant on the balcony below, with everyone on the film crew cringing on the impact.

" _Medic_ ," Beck mumbled.

* * *

A sly grin appeared on the face of Evil Stardust (or, actually, it was just the regular Stardust in costume),now sitting in Twilight's chair, and he replied, "I'm glad you asked, Beck, 'cause you see…"

(Begin "That's How I'll Get Her" from the Wander Over Yonder episode "My Fair Hatey")

 _I've done extensive research  
On our common enemies._

With the Time Staff in his hooves, Evil Stardust created a memory portal that would be added in during post-production.

" _You see, their secret weapon is their little fusion..._ I'm sorry, this is too ridiculous. Who wrote this garbage song?"

As he and Jack turned their attention over to a sheepish Bryson, Chris said, " _Why_ did you insist on this song being in here?"

"I always like to throw a little musical number into my work. Plus, who doesn't like a great villain song?"

Stardust rolled his eyes, and muttered, "I can probably name a few…"

"Besides, didn't you sing that one time back in _Good vs. Evil_?"

The costumed pony glared at the newcomer, and he replied, "No, that was _Evil Stardust_ , whose always late to these sort of things, and if I have to-"

"Just sing the song, please," said Chris, with Bryson nodding in agreement.

Stardust sighed in defeat, and muttered, "I'm gonna regret this."

A few feet away, hiding behind some of the movie props was Rainbow Dash (from the _AJBS_ world), with video camera in hoof. " _Oh, ho, ho, I am_ _ **not**_ _gonna let him forget abut this either!"_

 _###############_

"Great job on the castle setting everypony! That's a wrap for today!" said Chris, as he dismissed everyone in the room.

"Man, am I _glad_ to finally get this stuff o…" Stardust cut himself off after pulling on his make-up induced scar, which produced no such results. "Uh, something's wrong. Why isn't the scar coming off?"

Chris turned to look suspiciously at a makeup intern. "Did you use the industrial glue on Stardust's scar?"

The intern nodded in shame, and Chris placed a hand to his face. "Okay, then… um, Stardust, it looks like you're going to have to deal with that scar for a while….unfortunately we don't have that many shoot days left, so we'll need to do some rewrites."

Stardust was about to complain angrily when suddenly, an idea popped into his head, and he replied, "You've seen the _Lion King,_ right?"

* * *

"I'm so excited I get to act with you today!" An excited Twinkle Star said in enthusiasm. "I mean, I know it's not the actual show or anything, but… _wow,_ a _movie_!"

"I feel just the same as you, honey," Beck said, leaning in close.

Then, his wonderful wife asked, "By the way, who's playing Bright Mac and Buttercup?"

"You didn't hear? Chris managed to get the same couple that played them in that flashback episode," Beck explained.

"Really? I loved that episode! The song was so cute!" Twinkle said, hardly containing herself.

"Oh look, there they are," Beck said, gesturing to the bright yellow stallion and orange maned mare making their way on set. "Wow, this is so - _whoa_!"

"Well, what are we waiting for, let's go!" Twinkle said, pulling her husband off of his stage chair.

 _##############_

"Did I ever mention that Mr. Gardener over here used to have a crush on Princess Celestia?"

Everyone turned their heads to look over at Twinkle's boyfriend, whose face… wasn't red like it was supposed to be.

" _Cut_!" Chris yelled. "Beck, you need to be embarrassed."

"Sorry, it's hard to be embarrassed," Beck said. "I'm used to this and I love every second of it.

As the couple nuzzled, Jack forced himself not to roll his eyes, and Chris sighed before looking at his friend. "Any ideas?"

A smirk appeared on the young man's face as he replied, "Yeah, I've got one. Hey Beck, how's your sex life?"

"W-wait, what?" said Beck, who was now blushing, and a wide smile appeared on Chris' face.

"Perfect… _and_ _action_!"

* * *

 _HONK!_

Jack lifted his middle finger up in the air, and slowly began to move his convertible forward while saying, "Some people just don't have enough patience anymore, Sunset… oh, don't you even go there, I have plenty of-"

 _HONK!_

" _You honk that damn thing_ _ **one**_ _more time-"_

 _HONK! HONK!_

The young man made a frustrated growl, and before getting out of his car, he muttered, "Be right back, love."

 _A minute later_

"Still there, beautiful?" asked Jack, climbing back into the vehicle. "Oh, you do _not_ want me to start telling you those things over the phone, love… huh? No, nothing's wrong… but someone does need a new horn, though."

* * *

Beck took one long look at Starlight, and he said, "Before you do anything else, teacher's pet, I have a question… and that's when are you having the wedding?"

His question immediately made the light-purple unicorn confused. "Huh?"

After rolling his eyes, Beck gave her a response. "You know _exactly_ what I mean, Glimmer… the way you two talk to each other, look at each other… hell, eventually, you and her will be just as bad as Lyra and Bon-Bon."

Before Starlight could even say anything, the middle-aged pony added, "If you'd like, I can offer you some advice that could be useful."

"I'm supposed to take advice from a pony who shoots darts into other ponies' flanks," said Starlight, speaking in a dry tone.

Beck rolled his eyes, and replied, "It's not like I was thinking of something else… but my point is that you and I both know that, deep down, you - _and speak of the alicorn, look who decided to show up!_ "

Ignoring the sole prisoner that was in her dungeon, Twilight looked at a now-blushing Starlight, and said, "I can take it from - uh, are you okay?"

The purple unicorn nodded her head, and she replied, "I'm fine, just need to, um… get some air…"

As she watched her friend leave the dungeon, Twilight gave Beck a suspicious look. "What did you say to her?"

"Nothing for you to freak about, princess."

* * *

Instead of speaking out loud, Jack whispered his response into Sunset's ear, and as he continued to talk, her face was becoming almost as red as her hair.

 _"Ow! Rarity, I can't hear what Jack is saying if you keep pushing me like that!"_

" _Well_ , _excuse me_ _, but I can't help myself for being curious as to what the ring looks like - whoa!"_

Suddenly, their intimate moment was interrupted by the arrival of EG Rainbow and EG Rarity, both now lying on the ground after accidentally opening the door.

"Uh… hey, you two, how's it going?" greeted the athletic teenager, trying to sound casual as Jack rolled his eyes, and a red-faced Sunset tried not to laugh. "Did, um, either of you happen to see my soccer ball anywhere up here?"

"Rainbow, you know _damn_ well that your soccer-"

Suddenly, Jack was interrupted by a gasping EG Rarity, who hurried over to Sunset. "My _goodness_ , darling, that ring is _divine_ … now, um, just so we understand each other, you two have not yet-"

"It's a _promise_ ring, Rarity, _not_ the other type of ring," replied a red-faced Sunset. "And obviously _no_ to your other question… Jack's not that type of person."

EG Rainbow let out a chuckle, and she said, "I don't know, you always become as red as an apple… kind of like how you are now… whenever Jack whispers whatever he says into your ear, so-"

Sunset's boyfriend rolled his eyes, and he was about to respond when Rarity took a look at his own promise ring.

" _Hmmmm…_ um, Jack, darling… I don't mean to sound rude, but-"

A frown appeared on Jack's face as he said, "If you insult my ring in any way, Rarity, I promise that I will…"

"Oh, of _course not_ , darling, it looks _lovely_ ," ass&ured the white-skinned teenager. "But it _is_ obvious that your, um… money went more towards Sunset's ring rather than your own."

Before Jack could say anything in response, Sunset stepped in between the two of then, and said, "Alright, let's not let this whole thing blow out of proportion… Rainbow, did you find-"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, a long time ago," replied the young athetic, now spinning around the white-and-black object with her finger.


End file.
